Jim Clemmer's Leader Letter

I am delighted to kick off 2007 with the launch of our completely revamped web site! This was my major creative development project of 2006. Over the last 10 years, our web site has grown to over 1,200 pages and become a significant resource center with over 55,000 visitors per month.

In that time, my material (books, workbooks, CDs, and Internet resources), keynotes/workshops/retreats, and The CLEMMER Group services, have substantially changed and evolved (if I am going to preach "Leading @ the Speed of Change", I should practice it too). So our site was an increasingly poor representation of what I now do, and what we have to offer.

Like any major renovation project, this one took twice as long and cost twice as much as originally planned. But in my totally unbiased opinion, you'll find it was well worth it! This issue of The Leader Letter gives you highlights of the new site, with links you can then click to explore the areas that most interest you.

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"Jim, we are in the process of implementing a program in personal leadership for all front-line staff of our health authority in the interior of British Columbia (approximately 17,000 employees). Every participant receives a copy of Growing the Distance, as their post-workshop, 'keep-up-the-learning' motivator. We are receiving wonderful feedback about it. Thanks for providing a reference that is so meaningful for every individual within the organization, from cooks to physiotherapists to pharmacists and nurses aids. They love it, they are reading it, and I am hearing that they are using it to invite discussion in their departments about 'shared vision', values, personal responsibility, etc. I am thrilled and would love to hear any other recommendations you may have to keep their energy going."
- Melissa Koehle, RN, MEd, Organizational Learning Consultant, Interior Health Authority, Kelowna, B.C.

"Practical" is the one word of feedback I hear most consistently over my years of delivering hundreds of workshops. As my material and delivery have evolved, I am very gratified by how the sessions have moved participants from inspiration to application. I am constantly distilling my ongoing research, experience, and collection of best practices, into what I am told, are easily understood, highly energizing, and practical applications. Participants and those organizing my half, one, and two-day workshops, constantly give me very high ratings because they feel inspired to action through concrete 'how-to' steps that – when used as directed – dramatically boost results.

This new web site section provides an extensive and quite detailed outline of eleven choices of half, one, and two-day workshop variations of practical leadership tools and techniques I provide for management staff, executives, business owners, and frontline staff to develop personal growth.

Video is a new addition to our site. The clips in this section are provided to give you an overview of my key models and core development content and show my presentation style to executives, meeting planners, and development professionals interested in booking my services. You can also click on the hyperlinks provided with many of the clips, for a much deeper look at the material I am briefly highlighting in the video clip. These video clips come from customized presentations I tailored for that audience. The clips have been tightly edited for brevity and to remove all identifying references to the organization, their industry, or unique circumstances.

If you've attended one of my presentations or workshops and you'd like to have people in your team or organization to understand one of my key concepts, models, or approaches, browse through this section for clips you can show them. You could use the clip as a beginning point for assessment, further discussion, "moose hunting," action planning, training, or – in conjunction with the other resource materials highlighted with that clip – a much deeper look at that topic.

I have facilitated intensive two-day offsite retreats with over 200 management teams. The retreat process starts with broad, divergent thinking and assessments and then zooms in to ever more specific actions that meet each management team or organization's unique dynamics, goals, and culture. Each retreat begins with agreement on the theme, participation, and general agenda. As the retreat unfolds, the fluid agenda may change directions as the team learns together, addresses tough issues, builds consensus on priorities, and sets action plans. As with any game plan in highly dynamic situations, what seemed straight forward at the beginning, can quickly change direction. That's when I reach down (sometimes very deeply) into my experiences, large library of concepts and approaches (with hundreds of handy slides on my notebook computer), group process expertise, and facilitation techniques.

This section provides an outline of a typical two-day offsite retreat and many of the customizing options.

We had comments/feedback and Client lists on our old site. But as these continued to grow, they became overwhelmingly large. In the keynote, workshop, and retreat sections, we now provide options for visitors to review my Clients in as many as twelve major industry sectors. There are also hundreds of comments and feedback from participants, executives, and meeting planners, organized around major industry sectors and either keynote and/or workshops and retreats.

This part of The CLEMMER Group has seen substantial growth in the past few years. We've developed a specialized "training and consulting boutique", customized around my work. Myself and our small group of hand-picked associates have many decades of very successful "hands-on" experience. We carefully select our small core of customized training and coaching Clients to ensure a successful relationship.

This enhanced section of our new web site gives an overview of our services. We now provide a growing range of highly customized consulting, training design, train the trainer, and modifications to existing Client materials, or by using The CLEMMER Group materials. In conjunction with Peter Jensen's company, we also provide their popular and very effective Coaching for High Performance program.

This is, by far, our most popular section of the web site. It contains nearly 300 free excerpts from my books as well as many original columns and articles. They are indexed by twenty-five organization improvement and personal/leadership development subjects. These subjects reflect the key topic areas of my keynotes/workshops/retreats, models, and books.

If you're not already a subscriber to Improvement Points, visit this section to learn how you can boost your day three times per week, with a succinct and pithy Improvement Point on practical leadership from one of my articles or book excerpts. You can then choose to click through to the short article for a quick five-minute leadership lesson, a short pause that refreshes, an inspirational vitamin, or a quick performance boost. Each complimentary Improvement Point is designed to provide an opportunity for personal, team, or organization development - on the run or as part of your quiet personal reflection and learning time. You can also forward any relevant/timely articles to your team, Clients, family, friends, or colleagues for further discussion or action.

In The Leader Letter section, you can read every monthly issue of The Leader Letter published since this e-newsletter began in April of 2003.

Both sections also contain reader comments/feedback with examples of how subscribers use these tools.

This section is designed to give you a selection of material on my background, Client lists, comments/evaluations, core models and frameworks, archived teleconferences, print interviews, as well as a resource section for Clients who have booked my services to use for Introductions, or their own promotion of the event or my work.

As the title indicates, this is for freelance writers, journalists, program producers, and or media personnel who want quick and relevant background on me, FAQs, downloadable photos, comments/feedback, and such.

January 18, 2007
One Hour Podcast Interview with Jim, by "Inside Business Success"

Go to http://www.insidesuccessradio.com/GuestPage1.php?guest=Jim-Clemmer to sign up and add any questions you would most like host, Jan Schleicher to ask.

May 30 - May 31, 2007
Leading @ the Speed of Change
The Only Open Workshop Set for 2007

Leadership is easy when things are smooth. It's when the going gets tough that our leadership is truly tested – and most needed. How we respond – as Navigators, Survivors, or Victims – determines our personal and organizational effectiveness. Strong leaders navigate toward high performing teams and organizations by balancing the discipline of systems, processes, and technical skills on a foundation of effective people leadership.

And leadership is an inside job. It's nearly impossible to build a team or organization into something we're not. We can't lead "them" to places we rarely visit ourselves. Changing "them" starts with changing us. Strong and effective "leaders on the grow" pause periodically for a deep look in the leadership mirror.

Check out the upcoming Leading @ the Speed of Change workshop at http://www.clemmer.net/events/lsc.aspx. This is the only public workshop being held in 2007 (sessions are almost exclusively customized internal workshops). Continual and consistent feedback says this workshop is "edutaining" with the right balance of rich content, appropriate humor, inspiring insights, and practical "how-to" implementation steps.

I hope to see you in May, right here in the center of the universe!

March 8, 2007
Special Leading @ the Speed of Change Presentation in Calgary

The Calgary Chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) is hosting this evening featuring my most popular keynote presentation, Leading @ the Speed of Change, followed by a special overview of The CLEMMER Group's business model. This interactive presentation will be from 7 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. at the Sandman Inn, 25 Hopewell Way NE (at the corner of Barlow & McKnight). After a short break, I'll continue with a 45 - 60 minute overview of how my career has evolved in this industry and how we currently run The CLEMMER Group. This section is designed for current or aspiring professional speakers, trainers, and facilitators, however, anyone is welcome to join us.

Registration begins at 6:30 pm. I will have copies of my books and other leadership resources available at deep discounts. For more details and to register, go to the Calgary CAPS web site at http://capscalgary.ca/events.html.

I do very few public sessions like this (two in the past two years, in Winnipeg and Halifax). No other presentations are planned. Since I'll be touching on both personal and professional aspects of leadership, change, and dealing with adversity, you'll want to bring friends, family, and colleagues with you.

I am especially keen to get your feedback on our revamped web site. Please send me a quick e-mail at [email protected] on what you like best about it, what you like least, and suggestions you have to make it even better.

May 2007 be your best year yet!

Jim