Great Firms Have Passionate People

The word passion comes up frequently in the context of business strategy for accounting and advisory firms. I still remember when Jim Schiro was first elected chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers in the 1990s. During his first address to partners, he told us that “passion” was one of his three strategic initiatives for the firm. He recalled…

Where have all the questions gone?

In many organizations, expectations have moved from “get it done soon” to “get it done now”. This type of environment can cause people to stop asking questions and move right to decision or action. Many times these decisions or actions lead to poor results. And, if questions are asked, many times they are the wrong…

Revisiting the Weighting of Results and Competencies in Performance Measurement

Some of the more interesting conversations I’d had with clients in recent years have concerned how much weight quantifiable results and demonstrated competencies should respectively be given in measuring leaders’ performance. The prevalent practices in this area for companies of all sizes and industries range from results/competencies weightings of 100%/0% to 50%/50%. Not surprisingly, the…