Kent Blumberg

My quest for Servant-Leadership

In his comment about my August 23 post, Richard Rowan suggested I write something about my personal quest for Servant-Leadership.

How to increase the chance you will achieve a goal

Dave Opton is one of my favorite bloggers.  His posts cover a broad range of issues with the world of work, and they often spark ideas that help me.  His recent post called The Lexus Syndrome contained a snippet of wisdom about how to achieve goals.

Leading from Within

In an article published August 14, Sean Silverthorne explains Harvard Business School Associate Professor Scott Snook's thinking about leadership style.

Servant-Leadership

In my August 14 post I mentioned my quest to become a Servant-Leader.  This post outlines what I think that means, and provides some links for further information.

Financial Intelligence

What is your Financial Intelligence Quotient?  Every non-financial manager needs to understand the numbers generated by the accounting department, be aware of the assumptions and estimates accountants are making, and know how to use those numbers to improve the business.

Friendships at work

In my last post, I described how the Gallup Organization measures employee engagement.  Gallup's question 10 ("I have a best friend at work") is often troubling to people when they first encounter it.  Many believe that friendships have no place at work, and can hurt business results.  Gallup's research suggests just the opposite.

Employee Engagement

The Gallup Organization has been able to show strong correlations between employee engagement and business results.  What is employee engagement, why should you care, how is it measured, and what can you do about it?

Practice Leadership - Volunteer

One great place to practice and hone your leadership skills is in the voluntary sector.

Leading Safety

In my 31 July post I told how Mike gives me strength every day to insist on an injury-free workplace.  In today's post I want to review the principles I follow in leading an organization toward safety.

(By the way, though my background is in industrial leadership, I believe these principles apply to all businesses - industrial, retail, service, home office - whatever.  In every business there are risks to safety and health.  And in no business is there good reason for anyone to get hurt.)

Do financial incentives work?

According to Jeffrey Pfeffer and Bob Sutton, in Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management, the short answer is "no."  And if they do have an impact on employee behavior, it is often in unexpectedly negative ways.