For this post, I’m featuring a leadership focus tool from Mike Jay. Mike suggests that any leader can focus on 5 things and be successful in trying circumstances, no matter what the situation. His Big Five use acronym IMULL. Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let’s love turbulence and use it for change. — Ramsay Clark

Budget decisions define organizations, sometimes in new ways. Peter Drucker once stated, “Only three things happen naturally in organizations – friction, confusion and underperformance. Everything else requires leaderhip.” Questions that may arise during budget reductions are compared to the classic 7S structure model along with examples. Paul Harvey’s passing is also noted with a quote. –DN

Two UM examples of Tribes and Community are cited, while referencing higher education culture and the new book, Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization.

Competency programs and models seem to be picking up speed in higher education – which may be connected with the impact of social media and the career development aspects of competencies.

“My current thinking on competency models is to consider them more as an ‘intermediate stage’ in the evolution (of capability building efforts) rather than as the final stage.” — Prasad Kurian’s blog post, and Alltop HR blog on HR, OD and Personal Effectiveness

References a new study by Hewitt Associates and the Human Capital Institute. Very few of the companies studied are executing their talent management strategy successfully. In short, plans on paper don’t translate to reality in the workplace when it comes to recruiting, developing and retaining talent.

An original longer article citing two approaches: Talent Management Choices: Who is the Star, the Individual or the Organization? Used to launch my first blog at the University of Michigan. Still relevant in helping you build an appropriate talent management choice today.

Practical stuff: Press the command and plus (+) keys to ENLARGE blog type — using your keyboard – OR if you have a mouse wheel, hold down your ctrl key and then dial up and down the font size with your mouse wheel.

America’s Best Leaders 2008 – Do you agree?
Panelists rated the nominees from to 1 to 5 based on how well they met the following criteria: Sets Direction (25 percent), shared sense of purpose, innovation,; Achieves Results (50 percent) Of significant depth and breadth;, positive social impact, sustainable; exceeds expectations; Cultivates a Culture of Growth (25 percent) communicating positive core values, inspiring others to lead. See the top three at EdgeCat and the full post if you want to read more.

I’m back from sunny Argentina and wanted to share this new M-relevant blog format and post for the 2009 year:
* A news item about the new federal Chief Performance Officer appointment
* 2 blog-post references about goals: micro-goals as well as a performance management systems reference as a UM performance management pilot is underway.

Considerations in hiring a facilitator: the benefits of having someone assist you. Choices of facilitation approaches include “pair of hands,” “collaborator” and “expert.” These approaches also apply to consulting. Collaboration is the process consultation approach used most often by Reveln Consulting, assisted by highly experienced facilitation techniques and tools. (See the clients and tools page.) For other approaches, ask Deb about her consulting network of colleagues.