Is HR courageous?

This is the question I ask HR professionals this week. With the invaluable help of two Drake University students, I am currently analyzing hundreds of responses on the importance of courage for HR professionals. I will present the findings at the International Leadership Association Conference in Ottawa, Canada, 24-27 October.

I go to the ILA every year and get a lot of energy from my colleagues in leadership. I have met fellow researchers, learned new models, and enhanced my teaching through the ILA. I am super excited to go and feel honored to be presenting! If you are also attending the ILA conference, please let me know, I would love to meet you while I'm there.

For more information on the ILA Conference visit THIS PAGE or click on the image below.

In the video below, I share our preliminary findings on the importance of courage. I also share an elegant moral behavior model by renowned moral psychologist Dr. James Rest. 

Have you ever felt at a "dead end job"? By "dead end," I do not necessarily mean a job where you could not get promoted. I mean a job where you stopped learning. 

As I conduct research for the book I plan to write on The Meaningful Leader® I often ask people to think of their "moments of disengagement." The way I refer to these moments is the time in which "you lost the light in your eye." It may not surprise you to hear that many of the stories I hear are about lousy managers - people who overreact to mistakes, lose control, ignore the needs of their employees and, even more commonly (and sadly) expect employees to leave their integrity and values at home.

A common theme, however, has to do with the loss of growth and hope. People feel like they have nothing else to give, nothing else to fight for. A common theme is boredom. 

Helping followers grow is a key part of a leader's job. So can you help your follower grow? Here are a few ideas:

• Have a conversation with your followers about their plans. What do they want to learn? What is their passion? You should be able to answer those questions for every single one of your followers.
• Provide clear and frequent feedback. Make sure people know how they can learn more. Feedback, by the way, often has a bad reputation. It is mistaken for "discipline" or "what happens when you do something wrong." Instead, feedback should be part of the leader's coaching efforts. You observe your followers and help them grow.
• Be a coach. If you do not know how, take a course, read some books, understand what coaching means. Often, coaching involves asking powerful questions that help our coachees find the solutions to their own problems. 
• Help your followers identify stretching goals and responsibilities. While you are at it, make sure that your followers' responsibilities match their level of authority. Otherwise, people are likely to feel stuck in their growth. Also, remember to delegate. If you fail to delegate, you will not only weaken your followers' ability to grow but also your own.

A final consideration as you help your followers grow: Avoid the control trap. Micromanagers, by definition, do not support their followers' development.  When you micromanage, you send a powerful message of lack of trust and fear of failure. 

Here is the question of the week: Think of a leader you had who helped you grow. You may consider a leader from your personal or professional life. What did this person do that was so powerful? What can you learn from your experience?​

Recommended Books

Coaching for Performance, John Whitmore
Co-active Coaching, Karen Kimsey-House
​Coaching Questions, Tony Stoltzfus
​Appreciative Coaching, Orem, Binkert, & Clancy
​Flow, The Psychology of Optimum Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi