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The Cold War for Talent Heats Up

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 […]

5 Check-points To Developing a Corporate Mission Statement

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, […]

Meetings and Deferring Decision-Making

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 […]

Working Hard at Hardly Working: The tragedy of underworked employees- Part 2

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 […]

Working Hard at Hardly Working: The tragedy of underworked employees- Part 1

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 […]

Business Strategy and Holiday Cards

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 […]

Leadership as Great

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 […]