Please click the link below to access the PDF of the booklet. Robinson – What You Cant Learn at Harvard Online Booklet
Past Executive Briefings
The Science of Employee Motivation
Contrary to popular belief, employee incentives have limited positive effect on performance of employees or executives. According to Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton in their must-read book, Hard Facts, Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management, “individual incentives and highly differentiated reward and recognition distributions make more sense when performance can be objectively assessed Read More >
The Number 1 Reason Executives Fail in New Jobs
Jack Wilson, CEO of American Manufacturing Enterprises, was coming up on his 8-month mark in his new role and it was painfully apparent to everyone that he was not delivering on the Board’s great expectations. They couldn’t understand how someone with a career of progressive successes, starting as a bright up-and-coming MBA and culminating with Read More >
Dealing with a Prima Donna Employee
Jane Carter is the CEO of a 150-person, 5-year-old technology company that has been growing at a 20% rate each year. About one year ago, they recruited John, a star sales guy, to work for Bob, V.P. of Sales. John is a true rainmaker. He has boosted sales numbers and the whole company knows and Read More >
5 Steps to Retain Your Best Employees
To stay successful, companies cannot focus on constantly recruiting. Even in deep financial stress, your top employees are going to provide the most value to your company, while high turnover rates and subpar recruitment can decrease productivity and profits. Most successful companies know that they need to keep their top employees and executives happy, and Read More >
5 Ways to Overcome Fear as a Leader
Senior leaders, and especially CEOs, are typically seen as stoic, fearless personalities. Fear is not something people believe leaders experience, much less something that plagues them. Yet, the ‘average’ senior leader knows fear all too well. Recent research published in the Harvard Business Review by Roger Jones affirms the reality of fear in the life of a Read More >
6 Steps to Develop a Powerful Leadership Team
The leadership team is one of the most important components of an organization, if not the most important. Collectively, members of this group determine where the organization is going and how it is going to get there. Yet, the percentage of leadership teams operating at dysfunctional levels is staggering. In 2007, 42 percent of senior leadership teams were considered dysfunctional. Read More >
Introverts Make Great Leaders, Too
The most common misconception I hear is that introverts aren’t leaders. Are you an introvert? If so, then it’s likely you’ve been plagued by such misconceptions for most of your career. The truth, however, is that some of the biggest and brightest CEOs of our time are or were introverts. Take Bill Gates and Warren Read More >
Reversing Corporate Conflict Avoidance in 2 Steps
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 >
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 >