The Cranky Middle Manager Show #140 Leadership and The Offsite- Robert Thompson
Today we look at The Offsite, by Robert Thompson a book that teaches the lessons of The Leadership Challenge. Wayne Turmel talks to Robert about leadership, why Las Vegas is the last place you want to do training and we salute Pericles…
SHOW NOTES
0:00 Welcome to the show for those too low on the food chain to claim Omniscience, but too high for plausible deniability.
Today we salute Pericles, the brains behind the Athenian glory years. We salute him for thinking out of the box…by putting Athens in a box, where it was safe. It also made the world safe for theater and man-boy love….. unintended consequences, more than likely.
2:39 Lao Tzu has our quote of the week… comparing your company’s strategy to cooking a fish is a novel approach, but no more so than some of the other analogies we’ve heard.
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4:01 Welcome Robert Thompson, author of The Offsite, A Leadership Challenge Fable. Jim Kouzes has been with us a couple of times so check him out if this interests you at all. (Episode 82 and Episode 112 to be precise). I have selfish reasons for liking it, but it’s a good way to introduce the 5 Practices of Exemplary Leadership. We also discuss why offsites often suck and what makes a good one.
9:23 Robert actually teaches the Leadership Challenge principles and we talk about the challenge of trying to teach leadership. This is trainer’s geek speak. So sue me.
14:30 Why are people so cynical about training, even expensive well-done training. Yes, it’s more about engagement and how to make it happen.
18:46 How does Robert deal with the prisoners- the ones who don’t want to be trained and aren’t there because they want to be?
24:00 The biggest challenge for managers is often the metrics they’re responsible for. How do you challenge the process and keep your job?
27:00 Robert has lots of people who have endorsed the book including our friends Marshall Goldsmith and Steve Farber among others, so he’s in good company. he also recommends