We are often asked how strong leaders can be developed quickly with confidence that they will be successful in the organization. In responding to this question, we always ask three key questions: [list style=”customlist”] 1. What does a strong leader look like today? 2. What would make your leaders even stronger? 3. What is the…
It’s lonely at the top, but it’s not boring. You get bombarded with information from all directions. Everybody is trying to influence you. As a strategic advisor, a big part of my job is to help CEOs get rid of the background noise, look at the critical issues in bright light and make actionable decisions.…
In our study of language, we learn about the different tenses such as present, past, future, subjunctive and conditional. The “negative pregnant” is not on this list. Yet, it is a frequently used tense that your people hate to hear. What is the negative pregnant and how can you avoid it? There are two forms…
Now that I have your attention, please listen carefully. Engaging and motivating people is not a transaction. It is a life long mission. Just like romance, an obvious point for anyone who has made a long-term relationship work successfully. I’m reminded of an incident early in my career. I had the good fortune at age…
Boomers and Gen X’s think about Zen. Millennials don’t like Zen, far too passe’. They like Xhil (pronounced zil) a term so new that it’s not even in Wikipedia. Where does it come from, and what does it mean? Xhil comes from exhilarating, or perhaps exhilarated. When Millennials get engaged, they get that Xhil feeling.…
We are often asked to help leaders or teams think more strategically as they do their work. It’s not that they don’t do good work, it just lacks the cognitive structure of good strategic analysis that is more likely to lead to great work. We address these requests by co-creating workshops with the clients based…
Over the last several months, several middle market companies have asked us to facilitate the process of considering their business strategies. We’ve suggested combining a senior leadership team strategy workshop with getting input from the workforce through surveys and focus groups. This two-step approach has led to robust discussions and significant changes in business direction:…
Increasingly, I’m seeing companies listing job openings for business partners in both the HR and IT areas. While there are advantages to bringing fresh talent to any organization, in this particular role, it is far better to develop your own candidates. Here are the reasons: [list style=”tick”] Consistency. — HR business partners need strong consulting and…
Increasingly, companies seeing the benefits of executive coaching are building internal coaching capabilities for high potential employees, a group for which it generally is not considered cost-effective to use external coaches. The programs vary widely in their quality. In fact, some have arisen ad hoc, while others have been planned carefully. Few, however, incorporate the…
It’s time to face a new reality: voicemail is dead, killed by Millennials. We all hate to check it and we rarely leave messages. When we see a missed call on our smart phone, we return the call. If we see that a voicemail was left, we probably don’t listen to it if we recognize…