I feel so fortunate to have had the privilege of spending some time with Dr Jack Zenger. Dr.Zenger is the co-founder and CEO of Zenger/Folkman and was inducted into the Human Resources Development Hall of Fame in 1994. He also received the 2005 Thought Leader Award from the Instructional Systems Association (ISA). He received a doctorate of business administration from the University of Southern California, an MBA from UCLA and a bachelors degree in psychology from Brigham Young University. He served on the faculty at USC and later taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Active in community affairs, he served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Utah Valley State College and also as Chair of their Business School Advisory Council. He currently co-chairs the National Advisory Council to the school. He also has 35 grandchildren with whom he devotes as much time and energy as he can. He and his wife, Holly, reside in Midway, Utah.

Dr. Zenger has published 50 articles and is a co-author of these best-selling books -

"Self-Directed Work Teams: The New American Challenge" (Irwin Professional Publishing, 1990) "Leading Teams" (Irwin Professional Publishing, 1993);
"Not just for CEOs - Sure-Fire Success Secrets for the Leader in Each of Us" (Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996);
"Keeping Teams on Track" (Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996),
"Results-Based Leadership," published by Harvard Business School Press, 1999 (voted the SHRM 2000 Best Business Book)
"The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders," published by McGraw-Hill, 2002 and
"The Handbook for Leaders," published by McGraw-Hill.

Okay, so this is all great and Dr Zenger has made a big difference in how we view leadership development in many of our lives, but what makes him so different and special? Several things:

1)      He is one of the most honest and ethical people anyone could ever meet. Even his competitors comment on his integrity and love him.

2)      He always gives back to the industry. Whether it is sharing his work and his practices, he is always willing to lend a helping hand.

With the roll up play in several leadership firms in the dot-com days, Zenger Miller was caught up as one of the many players who were rolled into Provant (now Novations). As with many roll ups in the heyday, this one was caught with changing brands, shuffling leadership, lack of passion for the core business and the unsuccessful merger of many cultures and opinions. In fact, I would say that with a lot of hard work and diversities, Novations is finally hitting its stride again for the first time since 2000. We understand that there is a pending lawsuit from Novations against Dr Zenger. We just want to stand on record to say that when you look at the cause and root of all the Novations past issues, I do not think you will find they stem from someone who is such an outstanding citizen of our HR community.  If you have an opinion or would like to offer Dr Jack or Novations your support, we encourage you to submit your opinions to me and I will share them with our audience

While I was in Dallas I asked Dr Zenger to present to a group of 25 CEO's in the HCM Space. He talked about making leadership work in your organization now. His presentation based on research indicated that follow up is probably the most important aspect of effective leadership and getting people to do as expected. His research as shown below also indicates that effective leadership can truly impact profitability and company growth.

From their website ... Zenger/Folkman's research revealed that the leadership ability of managers and leaders in an organization directly affects the performance of the organization. Of the 180+ leadership behaviors identified by researchers, just 16 separated the highest performing leaders from the rest. The 16 differentiating competencies correlate with increased net profits, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. In a large mortgage bank, branch office managers were rated on their leadership effectiveness. The accompanying diagram demonstrates that the offices of those managers who rated in the top 10% in their leadership ability were significantly more profitable than other branches in the bank.

I am always looking at ways to improve my leadership skills. I think this is one of the reasons why I like hosting these CEO Forums for other CEO´s in the HCM space. It gives us all a chance to learn personally as well as grow the industry. We have had so much fun in many of our meetings. If you plan to attend SHRM and are a CEO in the HCM space, please plan to drop by on Tuesday morning from 7:45 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. to meet other like-minded souls looking for love and leadership. For complete details, email me at dmcgrath@hr.com.