Creating Alignment
As a senior executive coach, I work with high-performing executives at a variety of companies across many different industries. Admittedly, most are large companies with a few exceptions. One of the most rewarding things about this job is the ability to see patterns and help clients see around “corners” so…
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Are you running a company and wondering what expectations you can have for your team? Do you sometimes scratch your head and wonder if they really “get” it? Or do you ever feel like you’re playing whack-a-mole trying to resolve issues that should never get to the CEO in the…
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Are you struggling to retain employees? There is no question that the market for talent is tough. If you’ve been trying to recruit great people, you know that it’s not showing any sign of letting up. But as we level off from the pandemic chaos, we have reached an inflection…
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Want to make a relevant DEI Statement? Are you tired of struggling with what to say about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues? Do you care about the environment, social justice, and the good of the world, but don’t want to dive headfirst into a political debacle? What do you…
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“Organizational Resilience” Takes Top Billing at Davos One of the most exciting things for me as an advisor to the c-suite in large multinationals and mid-size companies is comparing the patterns I see with my clients each year to the themes coming out of the World Economic Forum in Davos,…
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Are you integrating into a new executive role? Are you an executive looking to bring in a coach to help you get to the next level? Are you an HR business partner who wants to be absolutely sure their next big hire hits the ground running and is a great…
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Are you planning a leadership team meeting early this year to get everyone aligned? Are you disappointed that it will likely not be in person or that some folks won’t be able to travel to join you? Have you thought about who will be the best virtual facilitator? Or have…
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As we face another year of adapting to disruption and driving growth in a landscape of rapid change organizations and leaders need these 3 strategies to set themselves up for success.
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Here are 3 ways to build resilience by minimizing power struggles and equipping people to feel safe, heard, and able to give their all.
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A Foundation For Resilience This is the Spit Bank Lighthouse. It doesn’t look like much, but this structure has stood in the middle of Ireland’s Cork Harbour since 1853 and there is an awful lot we can learn from it as we recover from a pandemic. In 1833, the lighthouse…
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As the debate on when to ease restrictions wages on and we all get tired of hearing about this ‘new normal’ we can’t seem to define, many leaders are struggling with a lack of things they can control about their organization and team’s future. I hear, ‘we just don’t know’…
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There’s no question, for most of us, these have been some tough weeks. For some, the impact has been minimal. Maybe you’re adjusting to working from home and dealing with the challenge of moving meetings around and trying to do things virtually. For others, the stress of quarantine, impacts on…
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Leading virtually through disruption is tough. If you’re currently in that situation, there’s no easy way to get through it. It’s even more difficult if people are not on the same page, working in different spaces, dealing with their own family challenges related to the crisis, and you’ve got to…
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Have you ever been driving a car headed towards your new home, having recently moved, only to find yourself suddenly turning down the familiar street towards your old home? How did that happen? I’ll tell you how. You were so busy thinking about something else – your conscious mind was…
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It is no longer enough to do things better, faster, and cheaper. The challenges leaders face today are more complex and don’t have a simple solution.
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Predictions tell us that 2020 will be the year of disruption. Is your team prepared? If your confidence is a bit shaky, now is the time to get ready.
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Do You Really Need A Competency Model? I’ve had a lot of conversations about competency models and I’ve built a lot of them but frankly, I’m not sure I have seen the value-add. When I asked our clients why they are considering investing the time to build a competency model,…
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Today’s landscape is one of unprecedented, rapid, disruptive change. With little margin for error, leaders and teams are expected to adapt to change and react to setbacks quickly. In our experience, the only way to tackle these challenges and come back stronger is by building resilience yet very few people…
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Defining Resilience Chances are when discussing the topic of resilience you have heard various definitions that paint a picture of “bouncing back” from stress, crisis, setbacks, etc. To test this concept, I tried bouncing a ball and realized something significant: After it hit the ground it rarely came back higher…
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“An organization without purpose manages human resources, whereas an organization with purpose mobilizes people.” – Juan Carlos Eichholz Resilience Starts With Alignment Any healthy organization is formed with a specific purpose in mind. That purpose is usually defined by the organizational mission, vision, and values. However, over time an organization’s…
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Change Starts With Alignment The need to have people on the same page is huge when implementing a major change. This is particularly true when the change involves thinking differently to solve a problem that can’t be solved by doing things better, faster, or cheaper. Enabling leaders to get people…
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Resilience Begins With A Choice How many times have you made a choice that did not result in the outcome you intended? Did you even know you were making a choice? Often we unconsciously choose the path of least resistance. We default to what is comfortable and requires the least…
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Guilt & Resentment Are you tired of corporate politics and drama? Some of us are better or more strategic in dealing with it and some organizations are more ‘political’ than others, but it’s not uncommon for there to be an unspoken or hidden layer of politics just close enough to…
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When To Rethink Your Organizational Structure “Is it time for a new organizational structure?” This question does not always have an obvious answer. Organizational restructuring, by definition, can be disruptive, even when handled as smoothly as possible, and even with the best of intentions. There is always a risk that…
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Corporate Restructuring That Works Starting a business, whether a lemonade stand or a consulting firm with a new approach to corporate restructuring, begins with a realization that something is missing in the market. Often, an entrepreneur feels so strongly about the missing piece that they are willing to drive a stake…
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The Case For Adaptive Leadership Do the challenges you face today seem more complex than they did, say, five years ago? Does it seem like they involve more people or that it takes more involvement from stakeholders to build a solution that works? Is it starting to feel like managing…
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“Before anything great is really achieved, your comfort zone must be disturbed.” – Ray Lewis Comfort Zones Have you ever struggled to get out of your comfort zone? At one point or another, we are all acutely aware of our comfort zone – usually when we’re bumping up against it…
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“The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths, making a system’s weaknesses irrelevant.” – Peter Drucker Imagine a company where everyone – from the CEO to the newest intern – shows up knowing EXACTLY what they need to do every single day, even on those…
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What Alignment Looks Like Is your team 100% aligned around your organization’s goals for 2019? Are you absolutely certain that you are making the right or “bests” projects to drive change and build organizational muscle? Can you deliver with what you have been budgeted, or less? If you are not…
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Have you ever gone into a situation…maybe a tough conversation… with one intent in mind, only to come out having done or said something else? It happens to all of us and it can chip away at our resilience. We think we’ve got it, but it’s not easy to consciously…
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Defining Business Architecture Today, many organizations still struggle to define what the role of a Business Architect should be and how to clearly articulate the value of Business Architecture to leadership. So let’s start by dispelling some popular myths about Business Architecture. Business Architects are NOT: assigned the next ‘hot…
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Resilience Isn’t About Bouncing Back Today’s landscape is one of unprecedented, rapid, disruptive change. With little margin for error, leaders are expected to adapt to change and react to setbacks quickly. Unfortunately, the skills required to tackle these challenges, process quickly, and come back stronger require thinking differently in ways…
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Imagine a company with 10 senior leaders. Carol is the CEO and she’d new to her role. Her leadership team must come together and make one decision on which the future of the company hangs. They prioritize the company’s investments to drive the strategy. Here’s the catch: Every one of…
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I recently had the honor of closing Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business’s Executive MBA Alumni Summit. I realized that the audience would be full of people with enough leadership potential to have their MBA paid for by a company and enough stick-to-it-iveness to get that work done while juggling…
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Traditional Training Doesn’t Produce Adaptive Leadership Skills People are constantly facing business issues they have never seen before, and they are coming at an increasing rate. Too often employees feel like running on a treadmill, going nowhere fast. The harder they run, the more worn out they become and have…
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Imagine you are a manager and you are called to a meeting by your boss to talk about team building. You walk into a room and are introduced to Fred, the ‘team building guy’. Oh, and all your peers, including the marketing guy that you hate and the HR woman…
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How Are You Handling Organizational Change? Does your organization miss some of your strategic objectives each year? Do you have goals that are recycled from last year, with new names? Do departments struggle to see how they fit into the overall business strategy? Is your team tackling new projects while…
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A Human Resources executive walks into a bar with a duck on their head. One of the long-time customers, though a bit intoxicated, recognizes the difference between a hat and a duck and shouts, “… you’ve got a duck on your head. The HR executive calmly replies, “… of course,…
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Digital Transformation Is Here! Just when you thought they couldn’t come up with a new buzz word, now there is Digital Transformation! For those who want a deep dive, check out the new book, Leading Digital. For those interested in jumping to what needs to be done … read on.…
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As 2018 dawns, two questions are being asked by many IBHR leaders and Chief Human Resource Officers: Is this year’s plan for my Human Resources team good enough to deliver strategic value across the organization to truly differentiate our organization from the competition? What is the next key capability that…
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