Blog

Diversity and Inclusion

War on Wasted Talent

Many have spoken and written about the War for Talent. I wrote an article Let’s stop the war for talent nearly 3 years ago. My thinking has evolved, but my message is largely the same. In fact, I shared at the EEON (Equal Employment Opportunity Network) lunchtime talk on 20th March that if organisations are serious about talent as a key driver of performance and growth, they need to focus on the War on Wasted Talent.

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Confidence

7 ways a manager can crush team members’ confidence…

Speaking to a senior executive recently, he told me about a change he saw in a team member he ‘inherited’. He described how this team member had shifted from being pretty much mute, with no opinions of their own, waiting for instructions and lacking initiative to being quite feisty, unafraid to express their views and showing passion for their work. Discussing what had happened and exploring our own experiences, we saw a few common things managers do which crush team members’ confidence and ability to speak up and contribute.

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Confidence

The dangers of leaders who appear confident but are…

Lately I have had many coaching sessions and conversations around aspiring leaders who wish to be more confident. Many have been told to ‘be more confident’, which is unhelpful (see Don’t tell me to ‘be more confident’). Others have been told that they appear confident but don’t feel so confident inside. I am excited to be working with these people as they are aware of and open to the need to develop their inner confidence.

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Leadership

How organisations and leaders crush diverse talent without realising

Following my article Bias towards style over substance is keeping your real talent hidden, I found out from a colleague about an organisation which eliminated introverts from their talent pool after doing some personality profiling of their high potentials. Most of my readers know where I stand on the issue of diversity of leadership style (ie. I believe we need more diversity in leadership style – please see Do you have to be an extrovert to get ahead?). It made me reflect on what organisations and leaders do to keep their diverse talent hidden and under-utilised.

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Uncategorized

Bias towards style over substance is keeping your real…

Thank you to the people who responded to my previous article Do you need to be extroverted to get ahead?

One of the comments raised another level of challenge – Unconscious bias toward style over substance.

If you were to choose one to promote between people who have the following qualities – who would you pick?

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