Over the past few decades of working with hundreds of senior management teams while leading The Achieve Group (now AchieveGlobal) and The CLEMMER Group, I've seen the strategic, the tactical, and the totally lost.
Read article »Several considerations for an effective customer service program as part of your core strategy to serve customers well.
Read article »Several issues face declining service levels. Find 'what' rather than 'who' went wrong.
Read article »Managers' behavior is the single most important variable in the success or failure of any organization's change or improvement effort. This starts with recognition that the organization is full of current or potential change champions.
Read article »The moose represents an issue that everyone knows is a problem but isn't being addressed. People are trying to carry on as if things are normal. By failing to declare the issue, they further empower it.
Read article »The best approaches, to help everyone in the organization understand what's going on and why, are personal and interactive. Workshops or seminars featuring presentations and discussions by senior managers are an effective educational tool in the improvement process.
Read article »Continuous innovation comes mainly from implementing the four stages of controlled chaos — exploration, experimentation, development and integration — into the organization.
Read article »Technomanagers are leaders who focus first on technology and management systems, before focusing on their customers and internal/external partners. They must discover the key "servant leadership" principle — success comes through serving others.
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Managers keep searching for the sure-fire change and improvement path. But following the trendy and popular routes often lead them over a cliff or into dead-end canyons. Cutting through the buzzwords and theories, comes Pathways to Performance — a guide to help you, your team, and your organization blaze your own successful way to high performance.
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A large — and growing — number of executives and managers now recognize that the quality of their future depends primarily upon the quality of the products and services their organization delivers. Producing consistently high service/quality demands a radical new closeness to customers and a level of employee/management, trust and partnership unlike anything most North American organizations have ever experienced.
View book/ebook/CD »Social media is a key force in making the Internet truly a world wide web of interconnections. And that means the penalties or pays offs of low or high service/quality levels are exponentially multiplied. Technology for collecting and analyzing data along with process management approaches like Lean/Six Sigma are powerful management tools. They can pinpoint […]
Read post »A few weeks ago my blog post on “Talent Management: Developing Strengths of Individual Contributors” reviewed 4 key reasons for developing key individual contributors. It also provided links to our white paper “Individual Contributors: Building on Strengths is the Foundation of Success at Every Level“. Some highly professional individual contributors wield great influence and make […]
Read post »I’ve been guilty of perpetuating the misconception of the well-rounded leader. Like many training and development professionals I used to believe that leadership skills development comes from assessing leaders against a leadership framework or competency model and developing an improvement plan to round out the flat or weak spots. But this long-held view is no […]
Read post »If you’re not connected with me on LinkedIn you may have missed the discussion generated by my post, “Wasting Time on Weaknesses“. Some commentators like Richard Peterson agree that weakness-based improvement plans are demotivating and wasteful. He goes further to call people “delusional” who continue to focus on weaknesses despite the “overwhelming evidence to the […]
Read post »The Sochi Olympics show the colossal impact of key individuals on team success or a country’s medal count. Popular entertainers or professional athletes are glaring examples of the outsize impact that key individuals have on the success of a movie or sports franchise. Organizational success often hinges on oversized contributions from pivotal players like software […]
Read post »We are often asked, “What is the one thing a person ought to do to be a better leader and have a more successful career?” While it is difficult to narrow down the list to just one thing, there is one that seems to surface over and over again in Zenger Folkman’s research. That one […]
Read post »Having someone fix our turned up collar or point out we have a piece of spinach in our teeth before a big presentation can be very helpful. The tone and intention of this feedback makes us feel supported and thankful or belittled and resentful. Giving difficult feedback is a critical coaching skill. As reported in […]
Read post »Would you like to move beyond building individual leaders to building a culture of exceptional leadership and coaching in your organization? Are you concerned about succession planning, deepening leadership bench strength, cultivating teamwork, recruiting top talent, increasing retention and engagement, improving customer service, safety and wellness, and increasing sales and profits? These critical issues are […]
Read post »Fixing weaknesses is so deeply ingrained in our practices and beliefs. When coaching or having performance discussions with a team member, most leaders will quickly gloss over strengths to address “improvement areas.” After reading How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success by Magnifying Your Strengths, Janet Pierce, Vice President of Education for Certified General Accountants […]
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