Change & Transition
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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Is the buzz you are hearing about ChatGPT increasing to the point where it is difficult to ignore? Are conversations about how to leverage it met with confusion? What are the legal implications? Are you beginning to fear that your competition will beat you to the table on something you…
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It is not uncommon for me to hear the question “How can an executive coach really help someone at a senior level?” A good executive coach can help individuals (and organizations) navigate complex situations, demonstrate visible leadership, and advance business outcomes. However, the key to getting the most out of…
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In my 30 years of coaching c-level executives, I am frequently asked how an executive coach can really help someone at a senior level. I get it. Once you have reached this level, you’re expected to know what you’re doing and be pretty good at it. Often, these leaders are…
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I’ve been coaching c-level executives and Presidents of business units and functions at Fortune 500 companies for nearly 30 years, and I still get questions about how an executive coach can really help someone at a senior level. I’d like to provide examples of real-life client situations I’ve worked on…
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Are you taking on a stretch assignment? Responsible for delivering breakthrough results? Are you being asked to deliver a project where the stakes are high and the risk of failure is great? Perhaps it’s a new product, a new business, a turn-around or a merger integration… or maybe it’s just…
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Have you landed the big promotion? Taken on a new role? Changed companies, or just taken over a new area in your company? If you have, chances are, you’ll want to make a great impression on your new team and demonstrate visible leadership to them and to your leadership.…
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Congratulations. You’ve got a seat at the proverbial table! Whether you’ve got a c-level title or not, your seat on the leadership team gives you quite a bit of influence as well as a lot of responsibility to balance. I’ve been coaching and consulting with C-Level leaders for nearly 30…
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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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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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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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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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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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Adaptive Challenges Have you ever wondered why things are a bit more difficult at work recently? Do the types of challenges your team faces every day somehow just seem harder and more complex? Ever feel like it’s taking longer to get things done because you just can’t get people’s attention…
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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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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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Remember when your organizational structure used to be something we hardly thought about. They were clear. We reported to someone (my boss) and often someone reported to us (my team). But things change. Now we have matrix structures, project teams that pull people into hidden conference rooms (that suck life…
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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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3 out of 4 HR leaders are facing some sort of transformation in their business. Too often they are brought in late in the game, … and typically to help “manage the change”. Code words for “exiting displaced employees and helping the survivors cope with the new environment”. Sound familiar? Coming…
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Matrix Organizational Structure: Love it or Hate it? Does the matrix you have to work through to get things done drive you crazy? Does it make things difficult or does it drive collaboration and better solutions? Matrix organization structures can make people cringe or act as a way to accelerate…
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Has Transformation Left You Disappointed? Are you frustrated waiting for the improvements in efficiency or effectiveness promised by the last project? Was the last ‘big idea’ not quite what it was cracked up to be? Is there a promise that the ‘next’ project will actually deliver results? Does it sound…
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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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Are you struggling to keep your business organized while transitioning to a more digital experience? Is it becoming less obvious who owns what…and why? Are silos in your organization structure getting in the way as the shift to increasing automation accelerates? More and more, organizations are realizing that as they…
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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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One Too Many Mergers? Strong economies bring growth which inherently brings change. To achieve growth, there has been a significant increase in mergers and acquisitions over the last several years. While mergers and acquisitions clearly grow organizations, there are unintended consequences that can limit and, in some cases, undermine growth.…
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Is Your Organization Staring Down Relentless Change? Organizational change. It’s real. It’s big. And it’s flying towards you like a 10-ton meteor you have no hope of stopping. The kind of change that causes you to question the work you do as you know it, your relationship with co-workers, and…
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I expected ego. I expected challenge. I thought I had a target on my head. And I was wrong. This year, for the first time, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government permitted a small percentage of non-Harvard scholars to participate in Ron Heifetz’s Adaptive Leadership Network. It was humbling to…
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The Case for Resilience in Organizations There is a lot of talk about building adaptive leadership to thrive in the face of rapid disruptive change. Sometimes this has to do with merely adapting to a lot of change and sometimes it is a full blown effort to find ways of…
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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…
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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…
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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…
Read MoreA 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…
Read MoreGet 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…
Read MoreLast 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…
Read MoreWhen 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…
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