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Tagged with 'organization culture'

Leadership Team Dynamics: Culture Change Begins Here

  We did a series of focus groups, interviews, and surveys within a division of a large company to help Chris, the division manager, determine why their culture wasn’t performing at the level he wanted. We found that the shortfalls in the division’s levels of engagement, service, and productivity reflected the leadership team’s effectiveness. Their […]

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4 Ways Learning and Development Ignites or Impedes Culture Shift

Recently I delivered a virtual keynote presentation to a national forum of senior executives on leading change and culture development. During these crazy times, strong leadership is more critical than ever. A central focus of the forum was the pivotal role of learning and development in change efforts. I presented four points that generated a […]

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Leading the Way: 13 Approaches to Navigate Through the Storm

Many people can sail the ship when the sea is calm. The real test is during fierce storms. Even mediocre managers can get by during calm times. Today’s massive storm calls for strong leadership. The American Pulitzer Prize winning author, Willa Cather once observed, “There are some things you learn best in calm, and some […]

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Culture Compass: A Six-Point Navigational Framework

When we’re mapping a trip to an unfamiliar destination, it’s extremely helpful to be able to zoom out to see the big picture. We can then zoom in for turn by turn details. A big reason up to 70% of change efforts fail is lack of zoomed out planning. Leadership training, succession planning, service/quality improvement, […]

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Delegation Dilemma: Are You Trapped and Overrun by Monkeys?

The senior and middle managers frustrated the General Manager of a large organization. She felt managers weren’t using their time effectively. “Many of them are managing a level or two below their position. They’re trapped in micromanaging daily details. They need to be more strategic with their time and learn to delegate.” She wanted delegation […]

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Are You Flushing Leadership Development Dollars Down the Drain?

During a break in a recent leadership development workshop, I talked with the HR Director (let’s call him Rich) about all the work they were putting into revamping the organization’s promotion and performance management system. Rich said they were basing their promotion process on their performance appraisal and rating system. Their big problem is getting […]

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Culture Change: Avoid These Credibility Gaps and Traps

How big is your organization’s aspire/live gap? Does your rhetoric match reality? Is your audio synced with your video? Research and advisory company, Gartner, recently surveyed 7,500 employees and nearly 200 HR leaders of global companies and had in-depth interviews with 100 HR leaders. They found “on average, 69% of employees don’t believe in the […]

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Are You Being Poisoned by a Toxic Culture?

During a retreat with the leadership team of a large healthcare organization, we were running a little behind schedule so I said we’d move fairly quickly through the Responsibility for Choices principle in our leadership discussion. Fortunately, an astute participant piped up with, “Jim, I think we need to talk about our ‘blaming and disclaiming’ […]

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Webinar: 5 Factors in Effective Competency Models

Competency models can provide a central framework for defining the skills and behaviors essential to an organization’s success. A well-built competency model provides a strong support structure for leadership development, talent, and performance management. A robust competency model outlines the behaviors needed to create the organization’s desired culture. But how effective is your competency model? […]

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Webinar: Change Culture by Upgrading Leadership Development

We did a series of focus groups, interviews, and a feedback survey with a division of a large company to help Eric, the division manager, determine why their culture wasn’t performing at the level he wanted. We found that the shortfalls in the division’s levels of engagement, service, and productivity could be traced to the […]

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Are You Creating an Employee Recommended Workplace?

Is work a four-letter word for many people on your team or in your organization? Is Monday morning the toughest time of their week? Are your team members mumbling “I owe, I owe, it’s off to work I go” as they trudge off to check into their “day prison?” Or do most members of your […]

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Motivating Leaders to Implement Individual Development Plans

Despite extensive use of competency models and annual performance appraisals, our research shows that only 10 percent of leaders have an individual or personal development plan and are actively making progress on it. What’s going on? Most leaders are career driven and want personal and professional growth. Many want promotions, bigger opportunities, and higher levels […]

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Reversing 9 Attributes of Cynical Cultures

How many of these points apply to your organization? High “snicker factor” on your vision, values, or mission statements Declining or stagnant employee engagement levels Absenteeism and “mental health days” Difficulty attracting or hanging on to top talent Waning or plateaued Client/Customer satisfaction Resistance to change Weak trust and teamwork Less than stellar service/quality levels […]

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Calling All Leaders

On March 7 (tomorrow), 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was issued a patent by the U.S. Patent Office for “the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically …  by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound.” The telephone was first seen […]

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Leading a Peak Performance Culture Archived Webcast Now Available

Last Friday (November 4) I delivered a very fast paced and information packed 60 minute presentation by webcast. My goal was “culture change in an hour!” I tried to stuff the major learning from our thirty years of working with hundreds of organizations and the latest research on culture change into 60 minutes. We had […]

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Thoughts that Make You Go Hmmm on…. Leading Culture Change

Here are especially vital findings and powerful observations about just what it takes to build a peak performance culture. These are drawn from Harvard Business School professor, James Heskett’s new book, The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force That Transforms Performance: “Culture really matters. As Lou Gerstner wrote, reflecting on his experiences in […]

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Book Review of “The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance”

John Kotter and James Heskett’s classic book, Corporate Culture and Performance, is an organization development classic. The book provided solid evidence of the payoffs that come from adaptive cultures and the negative power of unadaptive cultures. Adaptability is absolutely critical today. As change tsunamis relentlessly sweep the globe, adaptive organizations are getting stronger and unadaptive […]

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Silence Kills: Are You Fostering Cowardly Communication?

I just came across a Corporate Executive Board (CEB) study showing the incredible penalties and pay-offs of good and bad communication practices. A survey of 300,000 employees shows that open and honest communication pays huge dividends to companies with transparent cultures. A CEB poll found that nearly half of executive teams don’t get critical information […]

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Unconscious and Underlying Beliefs Undermine Culture Change Efforts

Culture change continues to be a hot topic because it’s vital to successfully implementing change and improvement efforts. It’s one of the key factors in the 50 – 70% failure rate for programs to increase safety performance, service and quality levels, Lean/Six Sigma, productivity, innovation, leadership skills. As I prepare for a series of webcasts, […]

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Learning from Southwest Airlines: Nurturing a Culture of Volunteerism

The New York Times recently published an in-depth look at the zany – and wildly successful – culture that propelled Southwest Airlines to become the largest U.S. domestic carrier over the past 40 years. Entitled “Pushing 40, Southwest is Still Playing the Rebel,” this entertaining and educational article explains how the company’s very powerful culture […]

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