Archive for Leadership Development

You Can’t Hurry Trust . . . You Just Have to Wait

There is an old song first sung by the Supremes, and later by Phil Collins and others, called “You Can’t Hurry Love.” The lyrics often run through my mind when I am working with leadership teams. Only the problem isn’t love. It is trust. You really can’t hurry trust. As an organizational consultant and executive [...]

Leaders: What Avatar Reveals about Respecting Differences and Organizational TanglesTM

There’s a buzz in the air about the movie Avatar. My husband and I trekked over to our local IMAX theater (www.imax.com) this past weekend and were not disappointed. The movie truly sets a new standard for moviemakers and moviegoers alike. I was transported to Pandora, a totally different world, light years away. My senses [...]

Last Minute Holiday Shopping? Give the Development Gift Pack

I have agreed to be a sponsor to Lominger, a division of Korn Ferry International? Why did I agree to do this? I was trained in all of the Lominger products in 1998. Since then, I have been using them as a regular part of my organizational consulting and executive coaching practice. I like these [...]

Warning Signs that you have a Jangle TangleTM—Compliments of Brothers and Sisters

Thank goodness for TiVo. My husband and I love it to catch up our favorite television shows. One, Brothers and Sisters is an ABC drama about an exceptionally close, yet dysfunctional family. Sally Fields plays Norah Walker, the matriarch. Norah has five adult children, each with their own lives and own dramas. As I watched [...]

How to Build a Culture of Fear in 3 Easy Steps

Leaders, follow these three easy steps if you want to ensure that tough issues are never raised, that you don’t receive early warning signs, and that employees are seen and not heard. If you follow these steps faithfully, you and your executive team will hold all the power. You will be secure in your conference [...]

Beware: The Shadow of the Leader Can Become the Shadow of the Gang

I once had a boss who used to tell our national sales force, “The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang.” In my work as an executive consultant, coach, and “detangler,” I have met some incredibly brilliant and talented leaders. All of them were exceptional in some way, and all had areas [...]

5 Reasons it’s So Hard to Give Tough Performance Feedback

There are no two ways about it. It is tough to give good constructive feedback. Not providing clear tough feedback to peers, direct reports, and staff exacerbates performance problem and contributes to situations that tangle forward progress. For example, I’ve had clients whose direct reports continued to come up short in developing product roll-out strategies. [...]

What Leaders Can Learn from Michael Jackson

I was stunned when I heard about Michael Jackson’s untimely death last week. As a huge Thriller fan,  I remember watching Jackson and being captivated by his music, his dancing, and his beat. He really was a musical genius. I never paid too much to the tabloid headlines swirling around his life. However, in the [...]

Active Listening Tips for Avoiding Strangling TanglesTM

A Strangling TangleTM paralyzes organizations and can lead to plummeting profits, lost revenue, and precipitous falls in market share. There are a number of causes for Strangling Tangles. Based on my experience and research, organizations with corporate cultures that discourage speaking up and sharing bad news are particularly vulnerable. Leaders play a huge role in [...]


Marcia Ruben, Ph.D., CMC

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