For me, a coach who specializes in executive communications, the topic of attire is like an unwelcome neighbor who keeps popping over. It’s a subject I’m not entirely comfortable talking about as it seems superficial and off-topic. (I’m a business coach not a style consultant, thank you very much.) But we all know it matters.…
DetailsTalent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. – Michael Jordan March Madness is upon us. It’s the time of the year in college basketball where dreams come true and when hearts are broken depending on the final score. How’s your bracket looking? Regardless of how your team performs there are key leadership lessons…
DetailsOn Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks. -H. Allen Smith In The 360° Leader, John Maxwell shares a humorous story about a turkey chatting with a bull. “I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,” sighed the turkey, “but I…
DetailsThe culture of your organization will either ensure your long term success or potentially leave your organization vulnerable to external threats. An effective culture leads to innovation, agility, great customer service, higher profit margins and high employee engagement. A weak culture creates and reinforces resistance to change, erratic financial performance, high employee absenteeism and turnover,…
DetailsEngaged employees demonstrate three characteristics: commitment, involvement and enthusiasm. Employees become engaged when their employers meet their basic needs, create meaningful opportunities to contribute, foster a sense of belonging, and provide chances to learn and grow.* Employee training is likely to be a key factor in the implementation of any organizational strategy aimed at improving…
DetailsThe technique of appreciative inquiry (AI) can play an important role in the overall change management strategy. AI challenges the status quo by working from a strength-based foundation. If you accept the following principles, AI may be a technique for change of interest to you: What you focus your energy on increases Every individual, team and…
DetailsEqually important to creating a powerful future vision is how that vision gets communicated to your people. This is where the art and skill of storytelling becomes very important. Done well, storytelling can be a powerful catalyst for driving transformational change. Effective leaders tell stories that position them and their organizations as change agents instead of defenders of the…
DetailsIn this article we will share with you the Threat-Opportunity Analysis, which is a change management tool that helps a project team develop their case for change. We had written previously about how to develop a powerful case for change and why it’s important to have one for your business transformation initiative (e.g., enterprise system deployment, organizational restructuring, downsizing,…
DetailsRecently, I’ve had the opportunity to hang out with an assortment of highly successful facebook page owners and administrators. The include the manager of a popular band, two Fortune 500 Company Social Media Directors and the CEO of a firm that manages hundreds of high traffic-high profile pages. Collectively, they’ve given me some good advice…
DetailsComplaining not only ruins everybody else’s day, it ruins the complainer’s day, too. The more we complain, the more unhappy we get. – Dennis Prager The story is told of a cowboy out West driving down a dirt road, his dog riding in the back of the pickup truck, his faithful horse in the trailer…
DetailsI’ve been approached by a prospective client who wants a workshop as part of an internal strategic initiative around communications between the levels. They want to focus on: 2-way communication, down to the employee and upward to the manager what should be communicated and when obstacles to communicating more openly how to solicit communication from…
DetailsMuch is made of delivering value to shareholders. Ask any senior director, manager or member of the board what his or her goal is in the company, and that will be the most likely response. It’s predictable, and it’s a cop-out. More on that in a moment. The term shareholder refers to those who have…
DetailsPreviously, we had explained the value of incorporating a change agents network as part of your overall change management program. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Paul Hagen from Forrester contacted me to request an interview for his recent research report titled “How Customer Experience Change Agents Transform Culture.” I provided Paul with firsthand insights from two customer…
DetailsA recent survey of over 2000 U.S. employers done for CareerBuilder found that 27 % of bosses had an employee they would like to see leave the organization. This is not surprising but what struck me was the proportion of managers who could see themselves adopting a strategy that avoids the problem entirely or borders…
DetailsI don’t care what they’re going to say. Let the storm rage on, the cold never bothered me anyway. – Lyrics from Disney’s’ movie, Frozen. Call me slow, but 229 million people beat me to the YouTube viewing of Let it Go, the enormously popular song from the Disney movie, Frozen. For the record, I…
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