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Learning Humane Self Leadership From A Teacher’s Resignation

Hooray and dismay.

In reclaiming her own integrity and future by resigning, a Florida teacher in the Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) made a powerful statement about our need to stop following leadership that doesn’t know how to lead. The teacher wrote:

“Florida’s startling attrition rate of 40% for educators [in the first] five years [of teaching] …. means my woes are shared by many. “OCPS Means Success” doesn’t mean squat if those measuring the success only recognize a specific brand of success, and continue to ignore the needs of their educators and students.”

Managers who fail to meet our basic human needs while hiding behind standards and data, have not earned the right to lead us. The current leadership structure may have role-based authority but they also must earn the trust and influence required to lead us. Of course, some educational leaders are doing great work at the nearly impossible task of meeting the changing needs of children, society and the imposed standards, but, clearly others are not meeting the needs of teachers and students.

Continue reading Learning Humane Self Leadership From A Teacher’s Resignation

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The Leadership Game: Deciding Who Gets to Play

Recently, the New York Times reported on a crisis in leadership at the New York City Ballet:

“The country’s premier ballet company, which has defined grace, speed and precision since the days of its co-founder George Balanchine, is now also a stage for the era’s #MeToo convulsions.” In the end, the ballet is looking to hire a new “humane leader.”

Principal dancer Ashley Bouder wrote on Instagram, “May we find a moral and fair individual to lead us out of this darkness and into future respect, integrity and success.” Continue reading The Leadership Game: Deciding Who Gets to Play

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A More Humane (and Effective) Performance Review

Photo by Jj Mendez on Unsplash

85% of employees are “not engaged” or are “actively disengaged,” according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report.

We agree with Jim Harter that this points to a crisis of leadership.

How leaders drive performance is one source of this crisis. Aggressive leaders can push their teams to high performance in the short run but will drive away the best contributors over the long run. Great leaders build teams and team productivity simultaneously by creating great experiences based in great performance. Continue reading A More Humane (and Effective) Performance Review

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HLI Interview with Stephen Sloan

I think we have some serious questions about leadership before us that need our very best thinking – not one person’s best thinking, but the wisdom of the crowd.

We really need a new way of looking at our humanity if we’re going to deliver the greatest good for the greatest number going forward.

Stephen is the driving force inside the Humane Leadership Institute. He is also Managing Director of Sloan Value Partners, a management consultancy specialising in IT, sales and leadership development. Here are a variety of questions that begin to give us a sense of Stephen’s path here and what’s to come. Continue reading HLI Interview with Stephen Sloan

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Every Organization is a Social Experiment

Every business or nonprofit organization is a social experiment being run by its leaders.

Born out of our experience, most of us believe “I can do better than my old boss,” and so the experiments begin, often with little consideration of how our approach will directly impact our teams, our customers’ experiences, or our business outcomes. Continue reading Every Organization is a Social Experiment