Executives and leaders have a responsibility to create an environment where all of their employees work together toward a common goal. This, when done right, will enable the company to bring in enough revenue to keep everyone employed and to grow the business. But after working with several hundred senior executives and business owners, I’ve Read More >
Execution
The Importance of Commitment
Bill has been the CEO of a prominent financial services firm for nearly a decade. He knows the industry and his company well, has adequate visibility with his employees, and delivers powerfully-worded speeches that have the capacity to get them motivated. The only problem is… they’re not. In fact, morale is down, performance is declining, Read More >
Building Top Teams: What it Takes
If you want to build a top team, forget team building ropes courses or wilderness adventures. These activities do bring people together; they are usually fun and participants feel great afterward. But once people get back into the workplace and encounter real problems to solve, the carry-over learning fades quickly. Building effective teams is an Read More >
What to do When Someone Ticks You Off at Work
Every week in my consulting work advising senior executives on the people side of the business equation, someone invariably will tell me about a colleague or employee doing something that ticks them off. And, I will ask, “Did you talk to them about it? More often than not, they will respond, “Not yet, or, Nope, Read More >
Thinking and Acting Strategically: A Critical Leadership Skill
When hiring or promoting someone into a key executive position, CEOs and board members typically look for candidates with interpersonal effectiveness and the ability to think and act strategically. At the senior level, technical competence is a given. It’s hard to climb the ladder if you are not technically qualified. However, whether you are a Read More >
5 Ways to Create a Necessary Sense of Urgency
They may sound similar, but there’s a big difference between urgency and emergency. Emergency is an after-the-fact response to an action or consequence, while urgency is a proactive state of performance that CEOs often need to create. Urgency is often needed in times of change, which may arise for various reasons. Most often, change is Read More >
Building Creativity into Your Organization
Whether in startups or established companies, leaders and executives are expected to be pioneers of new ideas and solutions. But when you’re just one person in a larger team or massive company, being the sole source of new ideas can prove to be exhausting–and not very fruitful. To generate better ideas, improve employees’ problem solving Read More >
Dealing with Resistant Personalities
All organizations have people who are opposed to changes in the status quo. These people have either helped create or worked within a structure for years, and it has become their comfort zone. Individuals like this will likely guard their zone fiercely and are opposed to policy change, feeling it could affect their job security. Read More >
Team Work Vs. Individual Work – How to Blend to Maximise Results
We can all remember those times at school when our teachers or professors said the term “group project.” It was usually met with glances to friends and a cacophony of groans. Little did we know then that our educators were trying to prepare us for the “grownup world.” Most professions rely on a great deal Read More >