Visit my new leadership development blog

If you've come across this blog through Google or some other search engine - then they really need to update their index!

Back at the beginning of 2008 I moved this blog to a hosted wordpress installation on my site. You can visit The Practical Leader here.

It's updated every Tuesday and Thursday with news, information and various tidbits dealing with leadership, management and issues around constant change and communications.

I suppose while I'm here, I should also give you a couple of links to learn more about me and what I do. So here goes:

Jim Clemmer's biography
Leadership Workshops
Management Team Retreats
Keynote Presentations
Consulting and Training
And of course there is always my bestselling leadership development and organizational improvement books:

Growing @ the Speed of Change
Moose on the Table
The Leader's Digest
Growing the Distance
Pathways to Performance
Firing on All Cylinders

So there you go. Nothing too spammy. Just check out my new blog at www.jimclemmer.com/blog

Thanks,
Jim

Technical Difficulties

My main hosted blog went down sometime on Wednesday afternoon.

We've been doing a lot of under-the-hood updates this week and something has obviously gone wrong. We're working to see what went wrong and hopefully have the regular blog up and running again very soon.

Until then, you can see my archive of every blog posted prior to Oct.1st.

Return to www.jimclemmer.com

Sorry, Jim

New Site. New Blog.

After about the fifth revamp of our web site since we first began a web site in 1996, we've found - once again - that web site makeovers are like home renovations; they take twice as long as expected and cost twice as much. We're finally very pleased to announce a complete update and overhaul of our web site. www.jimclemmer.com will get you there. After today this blog will no longer be updated as we move all content to the new site at http://www.jimclemmer.com/blog/.

If you are a Feedburner subscriber you shouldn't notice a difference. If you have us bookmarked as an RSS feed, you can update it to http://jimclemmer.com/blog/?feed=rss2

We've made lots of changes and improvements. Here are the main ones:

Re-Indexed Articles -- We spent the better part of the summer rethinking how we could organize the articles on the site. Under our new system all my articles are now filed by common or popular subject areas under four simple categories. This will make it easier than ever to find the resources you need when you need them. And when you get to an article, you can now leave your feedback right on the page with our new comment feature.

Introductory Video Clips -- To personalize and provide an overview of our main sections, you'll find optional - short - video clips I have recorded for a personal tour. It's a great way for visitors - new and old - to become familiar with all the resources available to them.

Integrated Blog -- We've upgraded our blogging software. And as of this week we will transfer all our feeds from blogger to our new blog located here - jimclemmer.com/blog.

Take a Leadership Quiz -- You'll find ten leadership quizzes right on the home page of the site. They are fun and functional as you can track how well you're doing as a leader and get suggestions on how to improve yourself, your team or your organization!

As you go through the site you'll see hundreds of minor tweaks that should make jimclemmer.com your first stop when you need practical leadership resources.

Answering our Call to Adventure in Searching for Purpose and Meaning

The search for meaning is as old as humankind itself. At the societal level, every culture has searched for meaning through religion, mythology, and related pursuits. This clearly comes from deep personal yearnings we all have to find meaning and purpose in our lives. I believe the constant and continuous search is a key part of the journey. It's not so much in the finding as in the searching. Once we have stopped searching and think we have found the answer, it slips from our grasp. So we have to keep searching.

I have become fascinated by ancient mythology and modern storytelling such as in movies, books, and television. Based on his extensive research for his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell says that our “call to adventure” is the personal and unique search for meaning and purpose in our lives. Only we can take this journey. We need to accept the call and push forward in our quest. It's very hard to tell you which path we should take since we all have to find our own way.

In my attempts to answer my own call to adventure and help others through my writing and workshops, I have developed three key questions that form the center of our being (and adventure quest). These are; Where am I trying to go (picturing my Preferred Future)? What do I believe in? Why do I exist?

A key part of the quest is to examine our mental frameworks and how we deal with adversity and challenges in our life. I’ve found a Navigator-Survivor-Victim model has proven to be very useful for this. You can review it in the March 2004 issue of my monthly newsletter at http://www.clemmer.net/newsl/mar2004.html. The April issue continues a follow up discussion from some readers sparked by this chart. Another important leg of the trip is really knowing our strengths and aligning our lives around our core strengths.

As we search for answers we often find even more questions. Courageously embarking on our own "hero's journey" in search of answers will take us further down the path of happiness and fulfillment. Bon Voyage!

Saving our World with the Dynamic Tension of Optimism and Pessimism

We live in a very fragile biosphere. We have shrunk the size of our world dramatically in the past century. And it's that growing realization that will save us. In my Growing the Distance: Personal Implementation Guide I devoted a large section to the power of optimism and the dangers of pessimism. The American Heritage Dictionary defines optimism as "the belief that the universe is improving and that good will ultimately triumph over evil." In contrast, pessimism is "the doctrine or belief that this is the worst of all possible worlds and that all things ultimately tend toward evil."

We need the dynamic tension of both optimism and pessimism. Unrestrained optimism can lead to complacency and refusal to address problems that need improvement action. Chronic pessimism builds a self-fulfilling cycle that spirals ever downward to hopelessness, cynicism, and inaction. Leaders who make a difference and improve this world are forward thinking optimists balanced with strategic pessimism.

There are many hopeful signs in many spheres of life on this planet that we are awakening to the connections between the spiritual, environmental, business, and political realms. I am very optimistic that we'll solve many of these problems facing us today. I am also quite sure that those same solutions will cause tomorrow's problems. And so the wheel of life and leadership will continue to turn for future generations.

iPhone. uPhone. We all scream for iPhone

With over four million 3G iPhones sold since it's release in June, and the game changing nature of the iPhone's App Store, I'm very proud to announce that the first business books for this powerful little device will be mine!

In association with Appengines.com, I'm releasing all my books as individual apps for the iPhone. At the very reasonable price of $4.99, I'd like to think that it's a perfect companion for commuters.

As I write this we're already developing interactive iPhone versions of Growing the Distance and The Leader's Digest, combining each book with the associated planner and guide to allow readers to take and store quizzes right on their phone!

Integrating quizzes and exercises will make these powerful leadership resources “must-have” additions for every professional using an iPhone.

To view a demo of how Moose on the Table will look on the iPhone go to:
http://www.jimclemmer.com/content/view/964

or visit the App Store

http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/

Paradoxically We Need Teams and Rugged Individualism

Most organizations have done a rotten job of harnessing the power of collective effort. That's often because western society's strength and weakness is rugged individualism and the ideal of the heroic manager single-handedly plucking victory from the jaws of defeat. This ethic is embedded deep in our cultural myths and stories as told through popular movies or the business press. We love the drama of bold and courageous individual action. Strong and charismatic personalities captivate us because they play such a big part in exploring the unknown, fighting conventional thinking or oppression and injustice, and building new societies and organizations.

Strong teams are unmatched in their effectiveness at managing affairs inside existing paradigms. Rugged, entrepreneurial individuals who refuse to conform to group-think or the status quo do a much better job than teams at leading us to new paradigms. We need both. Only the best organizations can balance this paradox.