Last week I met with an executive who’d called me in to help her with strategic planning and team building. I noticed right away her lack of eye contact and her brusque manner. What she told me was this: “I want to build a great team” and “I have an open door policy.” What I …
Continue reading “The “Southwest Test””
Several trends are making competence in communication more important today than ever before. First, the need to respond quickly to market changes creates the need for a less rigid and bureaucratic work environment. Information must quickly flow up, down, and across traditional channels. No longer is it enough to have a few skilled communicators at …
Continue reading “5 Trends in Workplace Communication”
I often see managers and leaders falling into the trap of calling a group of people a “team,” thinking that they’re improving morale by inspiring people to think like a team. What this leads to is the following kinds of arguments: “We need to meet as a team! We need to talk as a team! …
Continue reading “Leadership Trap #1: “Teams vs. Groups””
A recent article in the Harvard Business Review discussed what CEOs most want from a leadership coach. (Link to the article: Research: What CEOs Really Want from Coaching.) Two interesting facts stood out. First, nearly two-thirds of CEOs do not receive coaching or leadership advice from outside coaches. Second, CEOs most want to develop their …
Continue reading “CEOs: Their Own Worst Enemies?”
Often times getting the right people on the bus means changing people’s seats on the bus. There is a natural cycle to productivity. People typically learn a new job in the first year. Then they’re highly productive for the next two to five years. But at some point, they start to treat their job as …
Continue reading “Job Rotation for a New Perspective”
This tool provides a simple, straightforward checklist for an effective decision making process. Leaders can use this tool to clarify decision making steps for defining roles and responsibilities – and training people to make better decisions. It includes brief definitions of the five types of decisions (our “Five Types of Decisions” tool contains detailed explanations …
Continue reading “Decision Making Process – A Guide to Flawless Decisions”
This tool lists 10 ways to encourage innovation. 1. Create a corporate venture fund, establish clear criteria for picking projects, and seed the fund with enough money to make people pay attention. Then promote it and see what happens. 2. Put together in-house teams to track the competition, with each team focusing on one product …
Continue reading “10 Ways to Encourage Innovation”
In a world where change is accelerating, where new products and services are developed in ever-faster cycles, the quality of decisions is ultimately the most important test of leadership. Ironically, many managers and leaders are still working with Old World decision-making skills, even while their companies are trying to succeed in a Light Speed world. …
Continue reading “Managing Decisions in a Light Speed World”
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