Don’t get too comfortable with a paradigm. It’s guaranteed to change. For years it looked like Human Resources was an exception. As consulting firms were reorganizing to go to market by industry, their HR practitioners were pushing back hard, claiming that they were in an area where industry did not matter. From their perspective, shared…
Dear Earthlings, We have been observing your primitive ways from afar for thousands of years. Finally, we are breaking our silence to stop you from silencing the first generation on your planet that reminds us of ourselves. You are on the verge of seriously messing up your future – the very people who will pay…
If you do a little research, the list of desired leadership qualities will overwhelm you. You will beg for a shorter list. So, here it is: 1. Vision — If you don’t have vision, you can’t lead. There are times where vision requires predicting future consumer demand or competitors’ offerings. If you blow this, you…
It is increasingly being recognized that the key to talent management, innovation and business performance is a strong manager cadre http://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastianbailey/2013/08/15/look-after-the-suits-they-drive-competitive-advantage-more-than-strategy-or-innovators/. Here’s my list of the things managers need to do well to effectively engage employees and drive stronger business results: Be Accessible — Employees have no time for a manger who has no time…
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong impulsively fires an employee, Abel Lenz, last Friday for filming Mr. Armstrong during a conference call delivering a tough message about upcoming cost reduction and layoffs. Then the CEO follows-up with a memo of apology. Not surprisingly, the media gets all over Mr. Armstrong describing him as “going viral.” then, perhaps…
I’ll bet you can name the first two great lies without any effort. The third one remains unnamed because nobody is willing to admit to it. Well, here we go: American Business is Great at Managing Talent!!! Yes, that’s the biggest lie possible. I’d sooner believe that then check is in the mail or you…
A recent blog post of ours began the discussion of this topic by presenting the three components of Leadership Effectiveness: Personal Effectiveness, Relational Effectiveness and Assertiveness. This post expands on Personal Effectiveness and its components. It is interesting that a recent HBR webinar relates to the first three components of Personal Effectiveness. It explains the…
In discussing strong leadership traits and manager behaviors, accessibility ranks extremely high as a factor in developing leaders, growing talent and shaping culture. This important behavior needs to be balanced with prioritization, the subject of some of my recent blogs. A recent Forbes blog piece makes the case for accessibility as THE top tip for…
Lately, I’ve been writing about prioritization as an important aspect of leadership, identifying it as one of those skills that virtually never makes it on a critical competency list, yet is just that: critical to leadership effectiveness because of its impact on engagement and productivity. An important aspect of prioritization is the ability to stop…
A change in top leadership is a most precarious time for any organization, including major companies and countries. The risks are portrayed graphically in The Pillars of the Earth, a classic historical novel by Ken Follett, best known for the fictional thrillers he has written over the years. I highly commend it to Boards of…