March 6, 2020
Beyond Strengths: An Interview with Rob Kaiser
Rob was interviewed about his concerns with the strengths movement sweeping HR and T&D for the program, Out of the Comfort Zone. Listen now!
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March 2, 2020
HBR: The Best Leaders are Versatile
A practical model for developing the key capability for leading effectively in a disruptive world of fast-paced change and paradox.
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February 8, 2020
Integrating Personality Assessment and 360 Feedback to Develop Leaders
A workshop on the art and science of combining these different types of assessments to enhance self-awareness and guide behavior change.
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February 7, 2020
The Rest You Need to Know about Strengths-based Development for Leaders
A conference presentation revealing the hidden dangers in the advice to “play to your strengths”—and tips for how to do strengths work right.
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November 7, 2019
Yes, You Can Overuse Your Strengths
There is some real muddy thinking, which leads to bad practice, behind the claim that "you can't have too much of a strength."
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October 29, 2019
Why Are There So Few Women at the Top?
Rob gave a keynote speech at a leadership conference in Denmark about an overlooked way to get more women into leaders.
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September 17, 2019
The Hidden Weakness of Strengths-Based Development
There is a seductive appeal to the strengths-based approach to leadership development – but buyer beware!
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September 1, 2019
Raising the Bar in Leadership Development
A candid interview with Rob Kaiser and John Brothers of UNC Executive Development about what's wrong with leadership development—and how to fix it.
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June 2, 2019
The Accountability Crisis
Are your leaders soft on accountability? You are not alone.
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January 8, 2019
The Dark Side of Charisma in The Economist
The Economist asked Rob to explain his work on the dark side of charisma and how it can negatively affect leadership and organizational performance.
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December 1, 2018
How the Too Little / Too Much Scale Includes Context
One less obvious advantage of the LVI's unique rating scale is that it provides a subtle way for coworkers to take situational factors into account when assessing leadership.
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October 1, 2018
HBR: The Science of High Potential Identification
Research on the personal qualities that suggest an individual is likely to go far is surprisingly clear.
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September 26, 2018
HBR: Too Much Charisma Can Make Leaders Less Effective
When it comes to charisma, all that glitters is not gold.
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July 15, 2018
Versatility: You Can’t Lead Without It Today
Versatility is the key to leading in a paradoxical world of fast-paced change; but versatile leaders are rare.
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June 1, 2018
A Good Team is Hard To Find
High-performing teams will absolutely drive business results, but they are hard to come by. Here's why--and how you can apply the science of teamwork to build teams that work.
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April 1, 2018
Managing Yourself in a VUCA World
The secret to leading in today's complex operating environment lies within.
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February 1, 2018
Leading in a VUCA World
What does it really mean to lead in a VUCA world?
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January 21, 2018
The Double-edged Sword of Charisma
There is a dark side to charisma, and this research article demonstrates the risks posed by highly charismatic leaders.
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September 17, 2017
HBR: Playing Office Politics without Selling Your Soul
There is a difference between "good politics" and "bad politics" and the savvy leader knows the difference.
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June 1, 2017
Who is Bob Hogan?
To understand how a poor kid from rural California revived and redefined the science of personality, you need to understand his story.
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May 17, 2017
The Too Little / Too Much Scale: Advantages Over 5-pt Rating Scales
A scientific paper reporting multiple experiments demonstrating how the "too little / too much" scale is advantageous over five-point scales because of the unique ability to distinguish when leaders do "a lot" versus "too much" of important behaviors.
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November 11, 2016
Why Women Aren't on Top
Why has gender quality in corporate leadership been such a stubborn goal? Many reasons. But here's a big one that no one is talking about.
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June 18, 2016
Versatile Leadership in the Nordics
Rob spent the week with Scandinavian distribution partners, LEAD – enter next level, in a series of keynote addresses, workshops, and strategic meetings throughout the Nordics, including events in Copenhagen, Bjerringbro, Århus, Ålborg, and Oslo.
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April 12, 2016
Using Personality to Develop Versatile Leaders
Rob and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic delivered an interactive workshop on how to use personality assessments to help managers become more well-rounded and versatile leaders at the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology’s annual conference.
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March 1, 2016
A Framework for Developing Leadership Teams
This practical article synthesizes the existing research literature on the formation, development, and performance of leadership teams.
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February 3, 2016
Rethinking the Leadership Gender Agenda
This provocative session at the Society for Consulting Psychology’s annual conference challenged popular views and offered fresh thinking about how to help more talented women advance into senior leadership.
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January 3, 2016
Dealing with the Dark Side
Advice for managing personality derailers--in an employee, a boss, or even your self.
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April 22, 2015
Latest insights presented at SIOP conference
Rob presented new studies on an alarming lack of accountability in today's leadership culture and a hidden factor contributing to the lack of women in senior leadership roles.
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April 22, 2015
The Feedback Women Leaders Aren’t Getting
If we are ever to achieve parity at the top, women leaders need feedback along the way--but they aren't getting the feedback they need.
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April 13, 2015
Dark Side Personality and Extreme Leader Behavior
An empirical study documenting the link between personality derailers (measured with the Hogan Development Survey) and extreme, counterproductive leadership behaviors (measured with the LVI 360) in a sample of global executives.
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January 9, 2015
Improving Boards of Directors in Australia
A candid conversation about how Boards can really make a difference to company performance.
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September 4, 2014
A New Narrative for the Gender Agenda
The popular narrative about why women aren't as represented in senior leadership obscures a deeper systemic force holding them back.
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May 20, 2014
The Weakness of Strengths
A critical evaluation of the strengths fad--from the special issue of Talent Quarterly on Lies, Half-truths, and Marketing Hype.
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September 8, 2013
Versatile Leadership: The Polish Dilemma
With Poland's remarkable economic success, why change a command-and-control style that still seems to be working?
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July 8, 2013
Fear Your Strengths featured in The Economist
The Economist profiled Rob's latest book and why leaders need to learn to beware of their strengths.
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July 7, 2013
HBR: A Surprising Lesson about Caring Too Much
Can you really overdo people skills?
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April 29, 2013
Strengths, an Unseen Enemy? The CCL Interview
We wrote a new book; the Center for Creative Leadership asked us what it's about--and why anyone should "fear their strengths."
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April 16, 2013
HBR: Was the Iron Lady firm or rigid?
Margaret Thatcher's career as the British Prime Minister illustrates the fine line between a strength and a weakness.
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April 12, 2013
Why is the Leadership Industry Failing?
In the last 20 years, spending on leadership has doubled but the supply and quality of leadership talent has declined. This conference session explores why the leadership industry is failing--and what to do about it.
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April 4, 2013
HBR: Don’t let strengths become weaknesses
We all know strengths can be become weaknesses when overused; here's some advice for avoiding the trap.
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April 1, 2013
New book; Fear Your Strengths
What you are best at could be your biggest problem.
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March 21, 2013
Mastering the Opposing Forces of Leadership (Milan)
At the Business Flexibility Workshop in Milan hosted by The European House (Ambrosetti) Rob guided over 100 Italian business leaders to an expanded mindset and greater versatility.
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March 15, 2013
Employability: Theory versus Reality
As the world of work evolves, what are the key characteristics that make for a great employee? This integrative review and synthesis of science and practice provides the answer.
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March 6, 2013
Fear Your Strengths
Our latest book, written for executives about how what they are best at can be their biggest problem.
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February 7, 2013
What’s Wrong with How Executives Get Hired?
There is saying, "be careful what you wish for," and it applies to the high-stakes business of choosing executive leadership.
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November 8, 2012
HBR: Why managers struggle with accountability
Over half of managers aren't firm enough on holding people accountable; this post explains why.
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October 8, 2012
HBR: Was Steve Jobs a role model for leaders?
A lesson in thinking about leadership from one of the most incandescent visionaries of all time.
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June 1, 2012
Leadership Culture Wars
Views of leadership based on management research and those based on psychology are quite distinct. But far from being incompatible, they are actually complementary.
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April 27, 2012
Using the Hogan Tools to Develop Leaders
Guidelines, data, and examples for using personality assessment to develop leaders.
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February 29, 2012
The Rest of the Story on Strengths-based Development for Leaders
A debate on the merits and misconceptions in applying a focus on strengths to develop leaders
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February 14, 2012
Kaiser & Hogan win Article of the Year
How to (and How not to) Assess the Integrity of Managers
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December 9, 2011
From Chimpanzees to Communists to Capitalists
The success of post-Communist Poland offers an object lesson in the eternal laws of leadership.
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December 1, 2011
Personality, Leadership, and Overdoing It
An empirical study of the links between bright side personality traits measured by the Hogan Personality Inventory and a tendency to do too little, the right amount, and too much of the LVI 360 behaviors.
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May 1, 2009
HBR: Stop Overdoing Your Strengths
Rob and Bob Kaplan's popular article on how strengths can become weaknesses through overuse.
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March 1, 2009
The Perils of Accentuating the Positive
The rest you need to know about the popular strengths-based approach to developing leaders.
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April 14, 2006
The Versatile Leader
Based on over 20 years of studying executives and consulting to them on their development, we explain how to make the most of your strengths--without overdoing it.
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June 9, 2005
Filling the Leadership Pipeline
This edited volume includes action-oriented chapters from distinguished practitioners who share practice models and systemic solutions for developing leaders at every level.
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July 15, 2003
Developing Versatile Leadership
Our original article in Sloan Management Review introducing the versatile leadership model.
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January 1, 1998
Executive Selection
A report based on a study of over 300 C-level hiring decisions.
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