Posts by Jennifer Eggers
Leadership Secrets for Every CFO
Resilience & Change Agility: 100 Global Finance Leaders Can’t Be Wrong At one global company, equipping leaders to increase resilience and adaptive leadership in the face of rapid, disruptive change has strengthened the partnership between Finance and the business it supports. Recently, over 100 Finance leaders from twenty countries convened for a three-day conference to…
More informationThe Secret of Adaptive Leadership
Adaptive Leadership: The Antidote to VUCA VUCA. The acronym that reminds us we live and work in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world. As if we needed reminding. I don’t think we have one client that isn’t trying to compensate for the pace of rapid, disruptive change, whether it be through restructuring, prioritization, building…
More informationSecrets to The Most Compelling HR Strategy
Which comes first: Human Resource Strategy or Business Strategy? We know intuitively that the Business Strategy must come first, yet how well do we in Human Resources truly understand the business strategy and its implications for our own HR Strategy when we must ensure that our business clients are equipped to plan and deliver our…
More informationThe Bully in the Boardroom
Is There a Bully in Your Boardroom? If you’ve been in corporate America very long, you have probably met a bully in the boardroom. They exist at every level and it is surprising how many actually get to the boardroom. Often it’s narcissists who believe it’s their duty to rule the world. For example, the…
More informationAdaptive Leadership: Leading Without a Map
Adaptive Leadership Do leaders really know where they’re going? In today’s ever-changing business environment, even the most seasoned leaders cannot always anticipate the waves of rapid, disruptive change that seem to crash at every turn. Of course, there are still stable industries, but even the stodgiest of those are working to be more innovative. Why?…
More informationNew Chief Human Resource Officer: Sink or Swim In 48 Hours
New HR Leader or CHRO: 5 Questions to Ask in the 1st 48 hours Earlier this year I took an assignment as the interim Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA), affectionately known as the ‘T’. This is the organization that moves people to and through the city of Boston via…
More information4 Tricks: Asking Questions To Drive Strategy
Do Your Questions Drive Strategy? Becoming a “strategic partner” has become a bit of a cliché. It’s a tired phrase that is often ill defined and confusing, particularly to people so focused on the day-to-day, transactional work of getting things done. It’s easy to ask the right questions when we know the content; however, it can…
More informationDoes Your HR Budget Drive Business Strategy?
Are you spending your Human Resources budget on HR capabilities that drive strategy? All executives are accountable for budgets. How sure are you that your HR budget aligns scarce resources to drive the HR capabilities required to execute strategy? Do your internal clients complain that they are not getting the best value for their Human Resource investment?…
More informationBeat Up from Restructuring? The Antidote to the Aftermath
Have you ever seen a corporate restructuring where the dots didn’t connect? After all the angst that comes with organization design, have you ever felt like there was: Work that wasn’t missed until it went undone? Hand-offs between processes that don’t go smoothly? Critical decisions no one was empowered to make? Uncertainty around who was doing (or…
More informationGetting Real: Your Glass Is Not Half Full or Half Empty
Life is hard. That is the line I use to start talking about the model I built to help leaders develop resilience. It is always fun when the ‘rah rah’ people are sitting in the front because they tend to shake their heads and get annoyed until finally one will raise their hand and tell…
More informationThe Shocking Truth About Faith In The Workplace
Uh oh. The topic everyone avoids in the work place. I did too until I realized how important it is to great leadership. Leadership is hard. It is lonely at the top and anyone who leads others gets stuck in difficult situations from time to time. It’s what leaders sign up for when they step…
More informationResilience: It’s Not About Bouncing Back
When you ask the question, what is resilience, the first and most common thing people usually say is, bouncing back. Or maybe, bouncing back from adversity. It seems to be the common understanding. It is also one I would dispute. Have you ever watched a ball bounce? Let’s just say you stand on a tall…
More informationPart Two: How To Avoid Humor That Hurts (And What To Do Instead)
If you read my last article, you heard about the C-Level leaders I’ve observed recently who used bad humor as a vain attempt to connect with their audience. Sadly, this is, more common than one might think. As ineffective and toxic as this approach is though, there is a reason people use it. These guys…
More informationPart One: The True Cost of Misplaced Humor
This year I have had the dubious honor of sitting in several employee meetings lead by CEOs. These are always fun to watch and are great places to learn a bit about leadership. I remember early in my career watching Larry Bossidy at AlliedSignal take open questions from the audience. He was as adept at…
More informationMoving To Next
Dr. Michael Jenkins is a long-time colleague with tremendous insight into issues involving leadership and self-development. LeaderShift Authentic Insights, Inc. is proud to featured him here as a guest blogger. We hope you will enjoy the benefit of his experience.- Jennifer Eggers Ever feel stuck? Unable to act? Unsure about what you should do next?…
More informationWhy You Need A Capability Model Instead of A Competency Model To Drive Strategy
I’ve had a lot of conversations lately about building competency models. I’ve built a lot of them and frankly, I’m not sure I get the value-add, given some much larger, more concrete priorities, but here’s what I’ve been told when I asked why the company wanted to invest the time in building them: ‘We need…
More information20 Questions That Will Guide A Strategic HR Discussion
So you’ve got a seat at the table. Now what? Often HR partners get to the proverbial table, but really struggle to join the strategic dialog for a variety of reasons. It is tough when you’re not running a P&L or in the trenches every day; but elevating the conversation from the HR seat is…
More informationOrganization Design: How Many Is A Crowd?
At the start of every organization design project, if I am lucky, I am asked, ‘who really should be involved in this?’ If I am unlucky, there is an assumption that building the design will only involve one or two senior leaders. Unlucky in this case, usually makes for a very long project and a…
More information8 Signs That It’s Time To Restructure Your Organization
Organization Redesign: To do or not to do (and when)? This question does not always have an obvious answer. Organization redesign, by definition can be quite disruptive, even when handled as smoothly as possible, and even with the best of intentions. There is always a risk that the new structure will bring with it some…
More informationCan We Really Trust Performance Management?
One of my smaller clients recently asked me if they should consider an automated performance management system. You know the type – for a huge investment, employees can enter their objectives, managers approve them, and then self appraisals and manager performance appraisals are done right in the system. The same system can be used to…
More informationBuilding Career Paths…Without Breaking The Bank
Are your people asking for a career path? Many companies are trying to build career paths because people are crying for them. It’s usually in response to an engagement survey and done with a fair amount of urgency because employees are upset that they don’t have a proverbial career path. Some have spent millions of…
More informationSimplify The Science: Removing The Complications Behind Org. Design
It’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t had the wind knocked out of them by it: the ‘ole reengineering, right sizing, restructuring, downsizing, reorganization or transformation. I could hold a contest for the best name for it, but HR/OD folks know it as organization restructuring. In itself, there’s nothing wrong with it. Organizations outlive their…
More informationWhat’s So Global About Global Leadership?
I was recently approached by a friend doing an executive search for a Global Organization Development/Leadership Development role. He knows a lot about this field and has done a ton of recruiting, and he called to ask me what makes a candidate ‘global.’ What is the difference between a regular OD/LD person and a ‘global’…
More informationWhat’s So Global About Global Leadership?
I was recently approached by a friend doing an executive search for a Global Organization Development/Leadership Development role. He knows a lot about this field and has done a ton of recruiting, and he called to ask me what makes a candidate ‘global.’ What is the difference between a regular OD/LD person and a ‘global’…
More informationDifficult Conversations – How What You Were Taught Derails You From Your Message
A few years ago, Harvard Professor, Chris Argyris did some interesting research. He met with hundreds of executives preparing for conversations that involved delivering tough messages. He asked what they planned to say and how they would say it. Then he observed and recorded the meetings. In every case, the executives did not say what…
More informationGetting Out of the Middle
Little good ever comes from being in the middle. It’s an awkward place to be. Yet many of us seem to spend an awful lot of time there. Some of us are even paid to be there. This should resonate if you’ve ever had a customer and a boss. Being in the middle often looks…
More informationPeople Just Don’t Get It
As I help leaders find success in the face of more and more situations they are often unprepared for (reference in my last post), there is frequently a mounting frustration with people who just, ‘don’t get it.’ These seemingly clueless ones range from direct reports, to leadership, to customers and peers. They are all over…
More informationPeople Just Don’t Get It
As I help leaders find success in the face of more and more situations they are often unprepared for (reference in my last post), there is frequently a mounting frustration with people who just, ‘don’t get it.’ These seemingly clueless ones range from direct reports, to leadership, to customers and peers. They are all over…
More informationDemystifying Change
Get it right the first time. You can’t afford not to. That’s what enabling large scale organizational change is all about. The problem is that ‘change management’ like one of those guys on the side of the road with a grocery cart. It carries an awful lot of baggage that smells funny and most people…
More informationWhat You Know May No Longer Apply
As I talk to clients, there are a couple really prevalent issues that are holding corporations back in today’s economy. These are issues that will require people to think differently to solve them. For years, we’ve tried to do things better, faster and cheaper. And while that is still critical, it has become the ticket…
More informationDriving Effective Change – That Changes Things
Last week we talked about why Change Models Don’t Drive Change and left off with the two things you absolutely have to get right to ensure that a large scale organization change is implemented effectively. Those precious two things are Leadership alignment and tools. Today we’ll expand on what it takes to get them right.…
More informationChange Models Don’t Drive Change
When I talk to prospective clients, I get a lot of questions around what change model I recommend. That’s an interesting question because after 20 years of driving and leading large scale strategic organizational change, what I’ve really learned is that it doesn’t matter. I’ll admit that during those 20 years, I’ve gone round and…
More informationDriving Performance Through Others
When I think of what it means to grow and develop talent outside of a formal process, it’s really about improving your ability to drive better performance through others. That starts with understanding each person’s strengths and development needs, how those can be leveraged to meet the goals of the team, and having candid conversations…
More informationMake People Marketable – So They’ll Stay
Any consultant will tell you that 2009 was a disaster. It probably goes on record as the worst nightmare for anyone doing training or leadership development in the US, myself included. But something happened that year that fascinates me to no end. At the time, I was a partner with a global firm. In the…
More informationMake People Marketable – So They'll Stay
Any consultant will tell you that 2009 was a disaster. It probably goes on record as the worst nightmare for anyone doing training or leadership development in the US, myself included. But something happened that year that fascinates me to no end. At the time, I was a partner with a global firm. In the…
More information