We’re currently working with an organization embarking on an extensive leadership and culture development process. It’s starting in a series of workshops and planning retreats with the CEO and his team of direct reports along with their direct reports. The first part of the process is our strengths-based 360 assessment. The CEO is actively engaged […]
Read post »Most managers proclaim an open door policy. “You can always come and see me about any problems or issues” they say. Or they’ll leave team meetings they’ve chaired believing there aren’t any issues or objections to plans they’ve set since no one spoke up. Before running a Moose-on-the-Table workshop for a management team, I had […]
Read post »In its Human Capital Trends dashboard, Deloitte surveyed over 2,500 leaders in more than 90 countries who are concerned with talent management. The survey respondents see talent as a major challenge to growth. A few key findings were: “Softer areas such as culture, engagement, leadership and development have become urgent priorities. Leadership and learning have […]
Read post »We’ve recorded a webinar on Executive Team Building and Culture Development that you can access in our archive now. Here’s what we cover: Strategic Organization/Culture Development: Building a common understanding/framework for leading change Leadership is an action, not a position: Developing a culture with leaders at all levels Balancing “hard” management systems/processes with “soft” leadership/people […]
Read post »During these rapidly changing times leadership skills are critical. Yet many studies show a profound dissatisfaction with leadership effectiveness across most organizations. And a vast majority of executives feel their leadership skill development efforts aren’t effective. A major part of the problem is that we’re “seduced by the dark side” of fixing weaknesses or closing […]
Read post »In a recent Leadership Team Retreat we used a survey based on 7 Deadly Time Traps for Leaders. The biggest trap this team fell into was Acceleration and Overload. This was closely followed by Reactive and Busyness and Coaching Skills. We agreed these three areas were intertwined. These were creating a growing sense of frantic […]
Read post »Have you ever been stressed out by a bad boss? If it was bad enough you likely found yourself saying “they can’t pay me enough to put up with this.” At the other extreme, have you been part of a team led by an outstanding leader? Did the spirit of we-can-conquer-all, electric energy, and stretch […]
Read post »Condensing four decades of lessons learned into a 45 minute webcast is proving to be an invigorating challenge. A few months ago I stepped back for a long and broad look at hundreds of keynotes, workshops, and retreats we’ve delivered across a full range of industries and organizations in many countries. This led to a […]
Read post »There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. – Ken Olson in 1977 when he was president and founder of Digital Equipment Corp — a pioneering computer company that no longer exists University of California political psychologist Philip Tetlock spent two decades asking foreign policy experts to make predictions about world […]
Read post »A couple goes to a fair, where there’s a large, impressive-looking machine. The husband puts in a coin and receives a card telling him his age and what kind of person he is. He reads it and gets excited. It says: “You’re brilliant and charming. Women fall all over you.” His wife grabs the card […]
Read post »One reason organizational change efforts have failure rates as high as 70% is because too many newly appointed leaders take over a team or organization with overpowering messages of revolutionary change. Often the new leader implies that everything the team or organization did before they arrived on his or her white horse to save this […]
Read post »Mass shootings, ISIS, the Charlie Hebdo attacks, November Paris massacre, climate change, economic upheaval, infectious diseases, Syrian refuges, crashing airplanes, hurricanes, corporate greed and deception, Donald Trump… 2015 news headlines were full of disaster and despair. One national newscaster reflecting on the year solemnly declared 2015 the “year of darkness.” But that’s mass media sucking […]
Read post »Here is a recap of our most popular resources over the past year. I hope you’ll have a little extra time over the holidays to catch up on any that you missed, or review any you found especially helpful: Blogs: “The Quality of our Communication Determines the Quality of our Lives and Workplaces“ “8 Factors […]
Read post »Why does study after study continue to show that 70% of leadership, culture, change, and other improvement efforts fail? There are many factors contributing to this persistently low success rate. The biggest element is leadership and organization culture. These two intertwined factors continually show up as the critical X factors. “Soft” leadership and culture boosts […]
Read post »Cornerstone OnDemand analyzed their dataset of 63,000 employees spanning 250,000 observations and concluded: Good employees are 54 percent more likely to quit when they work with a toxic employee, if the proportion of toxic employees on their team grows by as little as one on a team of 20. As toxic employees make their co-workers […]
Read post »“Research on the Dramatic Impact of Extraordinary Coaching Skills” shows that leaders who are the most effective at coaching have three times more employees that “go the extra mile.” When leaders add coaching to their existing strengths they are ten times more likely to become a top-tier leader. But as Aristotle observed, “with regard to […]
Read post »Many organizations are making major investments in external branding. But often less attention or investment is made in improving the organization’s internal effectiveness. If frontline staff isn’t living the brand, customers’ raised expectations are dashed and their anger and cynicism grows. One of the biggest reasons frontline staff can’t live the brand is because operational, […]
Read post »As organizations thin their ranks to run leaner, the need for building highly effective leaders becomes a strategic imperative. Stronger leaders create stronger organizations. This creates even stronger leaders across the organization in an upward spiraling circle toward peak performance. As discussed in our recent webinar on “How Wilfrid Laurier University is Strengthening Leadership Skills […]
Read post »Heather and I love to travel. A great perk of my work is that I am invited to speak or lead workshops and retreats in some beautiful places around the world. Heather carefully selects which ones she joins me for. Northern Canada in winter rarely makes the cut! When we travel to a new city, […]
Read post »One of the “7 Reasons Change and Development Programs Fail” is a partial and piecemeal approach to implementing programs like engagement, customer service, succession planning, safety, performance management, talent management, lean/six sigma, and IT. Our “compass model” has evolved from culture development work with dozens of organizations. It’s often used during Leadership Team Retreats for […]
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