Dear Madeleine, I am 25, super organized, and I have no problem being direct. On the CliftonStrengths® assessment I come out as having high self-assurance. People just assume I am in charge even when I am not—officially. As a result, I have been given opportunities to lead all the way back to my first job.…
Dear Madeleine, I am the general manager of a hotel property. I have always received great performance reviews, have high employee retention numbers (a big issue in my business) and my teams seem to really like working with me. About nine months ago I got a new boss and she is a crazy micromanager. She…
Dear Madeleine, My boss is really tough—I would say borderline abusive. It isn’t just to me. He is awful to everyone. Because of this, I am in a constant state of anxiety and my work has definitely suffered. I was very good at my job but I know the quality has decreased because I have…
If you’ve ever wondered why so many negative and critical leaders seem to rise to power, recent research sheds a little light on the cause. It turns out that even though we say we want compassionate and empathetic leaders, we perceive naysayers as being more powerful than their non-critical colleagues. In one of a series…
Dear Madeleine, I started a business with my best friend about ten years ago after the real estate bubble burst and we were both laid off from our financial services business. Against considerable odds, we have been very successful. We decided when we started to grow that he would be CEO and I would CFO/COO. …
Dear Madeleine, I manage a large team of accountants and other kinds of finance experts. We recently posted a job for a senior budget analyst. One of the applicants is a person who was in the finance department a couple of years back. I wasn’t his boss, but I wasn’t impressed with him then and…
Dear Madeleine, I am a sales leader in charge of half of the US and I have a counterpart who runs the other half. We have a good relationship. We support each other and share ideas and information. I recently figured out that our newish boss, the EVP of sales and marketing, is playing us…
Dear Madeleine, I am a senior executive in a big global company. I am not an American, but it is an American company. With each rise I achieve in the ranks here, the more I realize just how not-American I am. Here’s my problem. I am a large person physically—I was an athlete in my…
In a recent Servant Leadership in Action Livecast, over 3,200 leadership, learning, and talent development professionals had an opportunity to hear from 20 of the contributing authors in a new book co-edited by Ken Blanchard and Renee Broadwell. The book, Servant Leadership in Action: How You Can Achieve Great Relationships and Results features 44 short…
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast, we speak with Ken Blanchard, co-editor of the new book, Servant Leadership in Action. For Blanchard, servant leadership isn’t just a book or a nice-to-have management concept. Instead, he sees it as a movement—a shift from leadership that is self-focused to one that is others-focused. “The world…