Even with the down economy the Talent War is in full effect.  Although maybe more of a subtle ‘Cold War,’ top talent is either looking for the next opportunity or really smart companies are making efforts to attract talent away from their current roles.  This is the time to grab great talent.  If you do [...]

Too many organizations are still caught in the malaise of inaction when it comes to setting direction these days.  I get it, things are still unclear and not stable. There is a natural rationalization to wait until all of the dust has settled. However, taking no action and a “wait and see” approach can be [...]

Many companies today are in the doldrums.  The economic downturn has been long and hard for most organizations.  No one ever expected it to go this long and there is still wide-scale resistance to the “new normal”.  And it is easy for executives to play small and shrink during these times but they must do [...]

No More Mission Statements For many years now I have been a big proponent of organizational Mission Statements and yet at this moment I find myself telling some of my clients to “Stop it already with the Mission Statements!” Seriously, the mission statement is something that I have felt so strong about for many years, [...]

Last week a friend of mine shared a powerful link on YouTube by Daniel Pink and his work from his book Drive on motivating employees.  The message although not entirely new is shared well with subtle insights that are valuable to leaders.  For a long while now we have known that money is not the [...]

Ah meetings, you love them or you hate them.  Of course many meetings, if not most,   are poorly run. Isn’t that amazing after all the books and training classes on holding effective meetings they still can be painful and wasteful.  People have been making jokes about bad meetings for over a decade and yet they [...]

Our Program Director for the Coaching Cadre, Chuck Allen,  continues with part-2 of his blog: How to balance challenge and skill Here is a diagram from psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” that illustrates the balance of challenge and skill that make satisfying work satisfying: Perhaps some of you reading this [...]

Today’s blog is  by our Program Director for the Coaching Cadre, Chuck Allen. Imagine getting paid a generous salary for this job: Comfortable window office New computer No one looking over your shoulder Generous deadlines Predictable eight-hour day Freedom to listen to music and surf the internet at your desk Sounds pretty sweet, huh? It’s [...]

It happened again this Holiday season.  I received numerous emails regarding this business conundrum.  What is this weighty strategic question….“to send or not to send” that is, should the company send out Holiday cards to clients/customers being that finances are tight? I have witnessed many of these discussions myself and have heard many stories about [...]

Beware, the following entry may seem on the surface a motivational or happy piece written in the spirit of the Season.  But it is not.  It really underscores the reality that in the end exceptional leadership always comes down to the basics. Last week I was leading a retreat for group of high-potential middle managers [...]