Building a Better Performance Review

Zach Smith — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:26:13 -0500

For some reason, in the last few months, I and my firm, Interkannections have been involved a lot with performance management and feedback issues.

Sustainable Leadership: Resilience & Responsiveness

Zach Smith — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:17:07 -0500

「勝って兜の緒を締めよ」(katte kabuto no o wo shime yo)

Sustainable Leadership: Innovation & Implementation

Zach Smith — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:30:53 -0500

Innovation & Implementation is where the rubber hits the road. This is where your desire, commitment, accountability and discipline are put to the test. Innovation & Implementation is all about getting others to become interested in and, in some way, buy what it is you’re selling.

Whether you want people’s money, time, effort, simple acceptance or fervent support they must find a way-in their own way-to connect with the quality of your work. The quality of what you and your people come up with here is closely interwoven with:

Seven Lessons for Radical Innovation

Zach Smith — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:57:08 -0500

I highly recommend that you read Obama’s Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators. Written by Umair Haque, it is a truly astute look at the organizational excellence of the Obama team.

Sustainable Leadership: Presence

Zach Smith — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 08:19:59 -0400

Presence is a constellation on a number of practices. Building presence means evolving your capacities to perceive. To do this means an evolution of:

Action Logic: This means increasing our capacity to perceive and deal with the complexities facing us as we try and maintain work / family / personal / practice balances. Managing and transforming dilemmas depends on the capacity to see through and beyond the horns of the bull facing us.

Engaging the Core of Sustainable Leadership

Zach Smith — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:58:53 -0400

In a previous post on Evolving Sustainable Leadership I looked at some of the technologies through which leaders can deepen their practice to become more fully engaged with their selves and the people and world around them.The question I frequently get, though, is what can we do deepen our practice on a daily basis? The following process I consider to be the core means through which leaders can sharpen, deepen and expand their capacity to live, work and l

Sustainable Leadership: What Good is a Fast Company if the Road You are on is a Dead End

Zach Smith — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:13:35 -0400

I hear many leaders (from CEO’s to team leaders) talking about driving change, driving the business,driving results.

The question that continually comes to mind when I hear these phrases is: Where?

Clear targets exist, clear goals have been set. This I get.

Key Technologies for Evolving Sustainable Leadership

Zach Smith — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:37:38 -0400

In my previous post on The evolution of sustainable leadership I wrote:

"The evolution of sustainable leadership is commitment to a process of self development that begins with “me” but necessarily expands to include and transcend “me.” The deeper we dive, the broader we roam, the richer our understanding of our place and purpose."

The Evolution of Sustainable Leadership

Zach Smith — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:22:37 -0400

Sustainable leadership arises from being able to see the world as it is: in its infinite complexity and subtle simplicity. It requires deep capacity to know and reflect on yourself and the multiple implications of your actions. It also requires that you extend your concept of “self” to include much more than “me” and home to be much more than “my house.” As the poet Gary Snyder has written “home is as big as you make it.”

Doing Different Means Being Different

Zach Smith — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:51:57 -0400

Our capacity to understand and engage the world is limited by our awareness--what we can perceive. We engage with what we believe the world to be. How we engage with the world is who we are. A simple example is this: If I perceive the world as fundamentally other or separate from me then I will tend to commodify it. I will tend to try to control it, manipulate and use it as end to my means. The world is like a vast shopping mall. I am a consumer. Sound familiar...?