Articles for Leaders & Change Practitioners

leadership
Conflict
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You Can’t Lead Alone… and You Don’t Have To
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Sep 26, 2023 | Leadership
Many leaders have the notion that it is lonely at the top. Like so many things, if you believe it, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fact is no one has ever accomplished anything of any significance alone. Think about that. I think about my first successful,...

Data-Gathering, A Cornerstone of Organization Development
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Sep 26, 2023 | Leadership
Data gathering is not seen as glamorous part of organization development. Many practitioners think of it as the precursor to the exciting things that practitioners do that really make a difference. Some consider it optional and could be skipped. They are mistaken....

Leadership & the Imposter Syndrome
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Sep 26, 2023 | Leadership
The leader of a portion of a major museum complex in Washington, D.C. desperately wanted to be a better leader, but his behavior consistently defaulted toward wanting to be liked. The leader of a major television station in the same city spent much of his time...

Revisiting Servant Leadership: The Secret Ingredient for Retaining Top Talent
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Jul 28, 2023 | Leadership
So many leaders today bemoan the difficulty of finding and keeping good people. Those same leaders rarely consider doing something about their leadership style as a remedy. It’s time for them to revisit servant leadership. Servant leadership, a concept first...

Managing the Discomforts of Leadership
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Jul 24, 2023 | Leadership
I'm often asked to work with smart but underperforming executives, whose justification is that taking certain actions would be uncomfortable. They also cite that they don't want to cause anyone else discomfort (which they find discomforting). Leadership is a role rife...

Leaders, Are You a Part of Your Teams Or Apart from Your Teams?
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Jul 7, 2023 | Leadership
Human beings have two opposing and powerful pulls: to be part of and to be apart from. When we are ‘part of,’ we belong. We want to belong to groups of others that accept us, appreciate us, and support us. In fact, we only survive and thrive in communities with...

The Value of Being Unproductive
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Jun 28, 2023 | Leadership, Organization Development
“I feel like I’ve always got to be productive,” a client told me. She continued, “I feel on the edge of burnout though.” I ask, “Do you ever take time off?” Then I add, “I love days when I’ve got little or nothing to do. In fact, I often plan my week to be sure I’ve...

Worthlessness Is a Worthless Fiction We Were All Taught!
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Jun 3, 2023 | Leadership, Organization Development
I grew up with a humiliating stutter. I was asthmatic and puny. I saw myself as pretty worthless. I had a friend, a psychologist, who used to say that everyone has their “core of rot.” We all have some aspect of ourselves that we consider worthless and unworthy. Thank...

Energy Sponges! Ways Leaders Waste Their Time and Energy
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Mar 15, 2023 | Leadership
Time is a resource. And leaders never have enough of it. There are goals that must be met, staffs to be managed, customers to coddle, finances to figure out, superiors to satisfy, and the partner and kids at home wanting their attention. The list goes on and on. There...

Developing and Using Personal Support Systems
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Sep 20, 2022 | Leadership
Charles N. Seahore, Ph.D. was the author of this article. Charlie was an exemplar of leadership and the practice of organization development. One method, of acquiring, maintiaining and demonstrating one’s interpersonal competence is to have a network of supportive...

Communication and the Pain of Independence
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Sep 19, 2022 | Leadership
An article by Doreen Stern, Ph.D. from "The Stepping Stone," March 2016, Issue 65. ~~•••~~I consider myself a straight shooter. Firm handshake. Excellent eye contact. Big smile. And like a Girl Scout, I tell the truth. Yet these facts are incontrovertible: I once...

Creating Agreements for Success, Part 3
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Sep 17, 2022 | Leadership
Contracting for Ego Management We all have egos. To a greater or lesser degree, we all have needs to maintain and/or protect our sense of identity and self-esteem. The admonishment to leave egos at the door is fruitless. Therefore, the following three can be useful in...

Creating Agreements for Success, Part 2
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Sep 17, 2022 | Leadership
Contracting for Effective Relationships How well a leader accomplishes his/her intended goals and strategies is very much dependent on the quality of the connection among the members of the system. As important as relationships among team members are in the world of...

Creating Agreements for Success, Part 1
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Sep 17, 2022 | Leadership
Contracting for the Impact We Intend Effective leaders need followers to execute strategies and tactics if they are to accomplish their visions and goals. Too often misunderstandings and miscommunications hamper effective execution. Good contracting can prevent these...

Leaders and their Egos
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Sep 10, 2022 | Leadership
Leaders are human and can screw-up. Their screw-ups, however, can be very costly. A primary source of their screw-ups, like all of us, is their egos. Our egos are our sense of identity, our sense of self-importance and self-esteem. They are our perception of our...

LEADERSHIP and the Importance of Connecting
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Jul 31, 2022 | Leadership
Leaders cannot accomplish their intentions and goals alone. It is essential that we connect well with those whose support makes us leaders. I mentioned last month a leader who embarrassed an important employee in public. That leader weakened their connection with that...

Managing Your Intentions and Impact
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Jul 16, 2022 | Leadership, Organization Development
A frustrated leader screams at a valued employee in public. Another talks over a subordinate while wondering why his people don’t speak up more. Both leaders have done something (with no conscious intention) that is likely to damage their effectiveness as leaders. We...

The Power of Conscious Choice
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Jun 1, 2022 | Leadership, Organization Development
A power that the best of leaders have is the power of conscious choice. All of us have the power of choice. It’s just that the best leaders multiply it by using it consciously. Most of us make the myriad choices of daily life automatically, though expedient and...

Expanding Your Experience of Choice
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Apr 25, 2022 | Leadership
From our previous article, we know that we all make many choices automatically. They save us time and energy and we don’t even notice them as choices… even when they are not saving us time and energy, when our automatic choices are actually wasting time and energy....

A Question of Loyalty
by Michael F. Broom, Ph.D. | Jan 3, 2022 | Leadership
I was consulting with a significant part of a large aerospace company. I was interviewing a very senior vice president. He was complaining about how hard it had become holding on to top employees. Of particular concern to him was what he saw as the lack of loyalty of...

Two Perspectives of Power & Conflict in Teams and Organizations
“It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.” ~ Francis Bacon Conflict is the bane of organizational productivity and engagement. When done with respect and...

Team Dysfunction & the Center for Human Systems
Col. Soo Lee Davis is the author of this article based on 30 years of experience with conflict and teams is the U.S. Army Medical Service.

Resolving Conflict in Teams & Organizations
A few months ago, I was working with five faculty members of a university sociology department. They were having difficulty getting along with each other. There were lots of conflicts and negative judgments were abundant. I interviewed each one....

Conflict and the Misuse of Differences
How we misuse the differences that we might learn from.

Managing Team Conflict
Cynthia Phillips, Ph.D., Guest Author Purpose of this Paper Describe the nature of conflict in teamsDefine types of conflict and describe how each manifests in a teamIdentify reasons why team members struggle with conflictDescribe how a team leader...

Creating Possibility, A Core Skill of the Organization Development Practitioner
The best organization development practitioners are possibilists. "I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist," wrote Max Lerner, summing up how he saw himself. We believe in the infinite possibilities that working with human systems can bring into...

Five Mindsets of Successful Organization Development Practitioners
The practice of organization development is difficult. Successful practitioners must… Support potential clients to take the risk that your services are worth their effort and will produce the desired results. Consistently make a difference through changing resistant,...

The Value of Being Unproductive
“I feel like I’ve always got to be productive,” a client told me. She continued, “I feel on the edge of burnout though.” I ask, “Do you ever take time off?” Then I add, “I love days when I’ve got little or nothing to do. In fact, I often plan my week to be sure I’ve...

Worthlessness Is a Worthless Fiction We Were All Taught!
I grew up with a humiliating stutter. I was asthmatic and puny. I saw myself as pretty worthless. I had a friend, a psychologist, who used to say that everyone has their “core of rot.” We all have some aspect of ourselves that we consider worthless and unworthy. Thank...

Managing Your Intentions and Impact
A frustrated leader screams at a valued employee in public. Another talks over a subordinate while wondering why his people don’t speak up more. Both leaders have done something (with no conscious intention) that is likely to damage their effectiveness as leaders. We...

The Power of Conscious Choice
A power that the best of leaders have is the power of conscious choice. All of us have the power of choice. It’s just that the best leaders multiply it by using it consciously. Most of us make the myriad choices of daily life automatically, though expedient and...

Anatomy of a Diversity Initiative
Meaningful interest in diversity, inclusion, and equity have waxed and waned in the United States since the 1940s and probably much earlier. World War II saw women taking an active role in the workplace for the first time. In 1948, President Truman of...

Alone Does Not Mean Lonely
The holidays are done. Christmas and New Year's Day having followed Thanksgiving less than a month before. Times to be with family and those you’re close to. But for me, I’ll dined alone. I’ve had folks tell me how sorry they...

Creating Safe Teams
An important key to having great teams and organizations is their sense of safety. Their members do not fear censure should their all-too-human egos and emotions become evident. They feel free to speak, to dissent, to be radical, and even outlandish. This freedom is...

Get to Critical Mass Support with System Mapping
Creating change in human systems such as teams and organizations is a matter of developing a critical mass of support for the change goal. Of course, developing that critical mass may involve working through whatever resistances there are and resolving the conflicts...

Resolving Conflict in Teams & Organizations
A few months ago, I was working with five faculty members of a university sociology department. They were having difficulty getting along with each other. There were lots of conflicts and negative judgments were abundant. I interviewed each one. They were all...

Changing an Organization’s Culture
Changing an organization's culture or the norms of a team is not something to take lightly. An organization's culture is the pattern of how it routinely behaves much like the personality of a human being. The analogy is apt since an organization is a human system....

The Secret Sauce for Making Teams Work
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” -- Margaret Mead She was pissed! She couldn't make her team work. As the new leader of a perennial best-company-to-work-for, she was...

Don’t Waste Your Strategic Plan
Don't waste your strategic plan. A good strategic plan serves as the focal point for how an organization toward both long and short-range success. It provides… Direction for aligning an organization's staff and activitiesCriteria for organizational decision-making....

Definition of Organization Development
Let’s clarify the definition of organization development (OD), the most powerful technology for managing change in human systems. It is unclear to too many people and organizations who could need it. Not too long ago, I was having dinner with a client during a project...

Quick and Easy Consensus Decision-Making
Consensus decision-making has the reputation of being very time-consuming. It needn’t be if the steps outlined below are followed. The failure of most supposed consensus procedures result from failing to ask those objecting if they are willing to accede to the...

Sustainable Interventions
You used all of your skills to move your team from being dysfunctional to one with a high level of productivity, full engagement of all team members, and they even had some fun together. But will your success last? Will they revert back to dysfunction when you can’t...

Six Ways to Cure the Dysfunctional Team Blues
The CEO is frustrated! She is the CEO of a major health care organization and, like many other organization leaders, believes in teams. She has project teams, functional teams, cross-functional teams, process improvement teams, etc. A few of those teams work very well...

The Why, What, & How of Organization Development
An upated and restructured definition of organization development
It Takes Dragons
People ask me why I use a rather fierce looking dragon as my Center for Human Systems’ logo. Dragons are known throughout the world in all climates, cultures, and eras. There are dragons with horns, claws, breath of fire, great size (some small), wondrous wings (some...
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