For decades, in Corporate America, employees were considered to be subordinate to management and there was rarely any push-back with regard to who led and who followed. Thankfully, times have changed. Managers have, for the most part, now discovered how much more successful a business can be when they encourage and cultivate the creativity, perceptions, Read More >
Past Executive Briefings
Emotional Self-Management for Leaders: a Mission Critical Skill
There was a time when leaders were encouraged to “say what they felt.” The truth is, however, that leaders need to monitor and manage their feelings so that they can effectively respond rather than react. That’s why the “say what you feel” mentality has–thankfully–gone the way of the dodo bird. For better or worse, leaders 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 >
Why Great Employees Quit
The cost of hiring new employees can be a drain on your resources. The average recruiting cost per hire varies according to job level and hiring strategies, but the average is 35% of an executive’s first year salary. It makes sense that an employer would want to recoup those expenses by retaining their top talent Read More >
Building High-Performance Executive Teams
In a previous executive briefing titled Building Top Teams: What it Takes, I outlined the five basic conditions executives need to create and provide for ensuring the success of teams: Establish a clear and compelling direction Create an appropriate structure Select the right people Support the top team Provide development While those five conditions are 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 >
What Mindfulness Can Do for Your Development
What is mindfulness meditation? Quite simply, practicing mindfulness is training your mind to focus your attention on the present. Mindfulness meditation has overcome misconceptions of being religious, quirky, or New Age. While it does have roots in Buddhism meditation, it provides anyone and everyone a way to disconnect and clear the mind. Why People Meditate Read More >