Tag: Leadership Qualities

Lessons on Leadership: Treat People Right!

In July of 2011, the final Space Shuttle flight landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center.  For NASA (and in particular, the Human Resources community), we faced the most significant workforce transition since the Apollo era.  Our Director of the Johnson Space Center, Mike Coats, liked to say that Shuttle Transition was about three things, “1. People. 2. People.  And 3. People.”  He would’ve appreciated the book I read recently called Treat People Right! by Edward E. Lawler III (2003)…that describes Mike Coats’ leadership.

I recognized Lawler’s name from my days in graduate school for HR Management.  Dr. Lawler has been studying, teaching and writing about HR management and organization effectiveness for more than 40 years.

In this book, he outlines seven principles for how organizations and individuals can propel each other into a virtuous spiral of success.

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How are your “Leading Change” skills?

One of the core qualifications for a government executive is “Leading Change”, which is defined as the ability to bring about strategic change (both within and outside the organization) to meet organizational goals.  Six years ago, I completed my second year as a front-line supervisor in our Human Resources organization.  I previously served a year as supervisor for HR Reps—an area where I was grown and raised for ten years.  But my second year was different.  There, I served as a supervisor for HR Development—leading and guiding an organization of training and organization development specialists.

Upon completion of that year, I received some good feedback from the team.

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