Rodger Dean Duncan's Blog, page 2

Is ‘Fake News’ Creeping into Your Belief System?

If you’re like most people, you make thousands of decisions each day.

Sure, most of those decisions are unconscious and inconsequential—like will you put on your left shoe or right shoe first?

Of course, many decisions do have varying degrees of consequence.

Among all the products and services on the market, which ones will you buy?

Which relationships receive your focused attention? Of all the priorities in your life, where do you invest the most time and energy?

And when it comes to your core ...

Decisions, Decisions: Tips on Making Tough Ones

In a world of so many competing interests, making smart decisions is harder than ever. So much so, in fact, that some leaders get stuck in the quicksand of indecision.

What they apparently don’t understand is that indecision is a decision. Putting issues “on hold” is seductive and deceptive. Problems don’t disappear. Challenges don’t mysteriously vanish. As time passes, in fact, the list of options is often the only thing that shrinks.

Navigating information and choices is among the leader’s mos...

Adapt Or Die. It’s More Than a Nifty Slogan

In this topsy-turvy world, we have three options.

We can resist change and fade into irrelevance.

We can wait and react to change, then hang on for dear life and hope to survive. (We likely won’t.)

Or we can proactively anticipate change, then adapt and thrive.

It sounds simple enough. But the landscape is littered by people who chose one of the first two options.

Despite (or perhaps because of) a future that’s coming faster than we can blink, we’re living in an unprecedented period of opportuni...

Hybrid Meetings Giving You Angst? Try These Tips

Meetings. Can’t get enough of ‘em. Like you can’t get enough of acid reflux and toothaches.

Sarcasm aside, you know that meetings are part of your workplace reality.

They just are.

And many studies show that, on average, employees spend nearly 60% of their day on work coordination instead of focusing on their skilled, strategic jobs. And a quarter of those say they have too many meetings and that they place a drain on productivity.

But let’s get real. Even if your organization is working on the ...

Are You Ready for Seismic Changes in the Workplace?

Crystal balls have a poor track record. But when it comes to the way people work, we can be certain that in many ways the future will bear little resemblance to the past.

Work practices that seemed unthinkable yesterday don’t raise an eyebrow today. Many of the jobs that humans did for ages are now encroached upon by automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robots and cobots.

That’s certainly not to suggest that people aren’t necessary. Quite the contrary. But it is to say that peo...

You Really Want to Get Better? Take Charge of Yourself

Okay, so you’re ready to stretch? You want to boost your performance as well as your value in the marketplace? You want to put your career on a more upward trajectory?

You’d love to have one of those highly touted personal coaches. But you find that they’re too expensive? Or unavailable? Or both?

There’s good news. By following the right approach, you can get helpful coaching every day of your life. And at a price you can afford.

The recipe for success can be found in Take Charge of You: How Sel...

For Great Leadership, Focus On Simple Truths

Unless you’re hiding under a rock, you’ve likely heard of servant leadership.

In a nutshell, servant leaders focus primarily on the growth and wellbeing of people and the communities to which they belong.

Traditional leadership often involves accumulating and exercising power by someone “at the top of the pyramid.” Servant leaders, on the other hand, put the needs of others first. They’re not worried about title or position. They focus on getting important things done through the development of ...

How True Accountability Is About Choice, Not Blame

My friend Stephen R. Covey gave us a treasure trove of wisdom about human performance. One of his most enlightening aphorisms was “accountability breeds response-ability.”

Stephen was a strong proponent of personal choice and the individual’s right to make behavioral decisions. After all, “be proactive” is number one on his famous list of Seven Habits. In other words, don’t make excuses or blame others. If you want good results, make choices that produce those results.

Brian Moran and Michael Le...

Compassionate Leadership Makes Dollars and Sense

Leadership development has always been and will continue to be a pressing need in the workplace. Trouble is, “people development” is often among the first budget items to take a hit in tough times.

You may have noticed: We’re living in tough times.

But rather than hunker down in a hidey-hole, smart leaders are upgrading their own skills and those of their team members. In today’s world, we see rapidly accelerating technology and a five-generation workforce.

So, proficiency with communication, tr...

How Women Can Thrive in the Workplace

Doesn’t it make sense that women who arrive at the top in the workplace should be able to thrive at the top? Sure. But too often they’re regarded as lucky if they merely survive.

Today, women hold fewer than 25% of middle management positions, and the percentage gets lower at each rung up the corporate ladder. Sure, some women are able to climb to the level of CEO. Yet they experience higher turnover than their male counterparts.

So, in today’s workplace reality, what does it take for women to f...