It’s About How You Make Them Feel
In a recent session with a coaching client, I asked her view of the key tenets of leadership. Responding thoughtfully yet crisply, she talked about the importance of the leader first having their own act squared away, of providing a clear sense of purpose and direction, fielding (and keeping) a talented, motivated team, maintaining a […]
Yes, Organizational Fit Still Matters
In the work world, “Culture” represents the values, norms, aims, customs, rules, the way of life if you will of an organization. It is an amalgam of the non-talent ingredients required to be happy, productive, and successful in that organization at a particular time. For nearly 30 years, I have been one of the louder […]
Improve Your Talent Hunts… Get Good With Crayons
Much has been written and said recently about the incidence rate of job candidates’ outright refusal of job offers, and the unprecedented ghosting of interviews and start dates. Anecdotal evidence suggests that one central cause of this behavior rests outside the terms of the deal. Rather, many candidates are balking because they’re not particularly wowed […]
Are You Listening, or Just Waiting to Talk?
Almost universally, the leaders I have the good fortune to coach find that one of the skills they most need to work on is listening… really listening. That need has been ever-present, but in an age when we’re attempting to multi-task, to compress more activity into each day, and babbling more (because we can), the […]
Playing Favorites
Several of our recent employee engagement survey projects have indicated the presence of elevated levels of perceived favoritism within the surveyed population. It has occurred enough to cause us to pause and probe further for understanding. We’ve not yet wrapped our arms completely around the universal (as opposed to organization-specific) learnings, but here’s one consistent […]
Piercings, Goatees, and Tats…Oh My!
It was Q&A time after a speech I’d just made to a large audience of small business owners, in a somewhat conservative retail field. As the speech featured some tips on how to be successful engaging younger workers (hint: “Complain that they aren’t like Baby Boomers” was not one of the tips), I wasn’t too surprised by […]
Leadership is About Blood, Sweat, and Occasional Tears
In the time that I’ve served in a leadership role, in both for profit and non-profit venues, I have tried mightily to operate with a short list of simple, understandable maxims, like… Take pains to hire adults, and treat them as such Ensure that, from day one, everyone on the team understands and shares our […]
Assume Positive Intent
In April, 2008, as part of a Fortune Magazine segment in which notably successful people were queried about the best advice they had been given, Pepsico Chairman and CEO, Indra Nooyi volunteered a nugget given to her by her father: “Assume positive intent.” At its core, Mr. Nooyi’s knowing advice to his daughter capitalizes on the positive expectancy […]
Make This Your First Business Conversation in 2018
Lots of people are now deep in the process of resolving to do a few things differently over the coming New Year. Many are resolving to join the growing crowd of Americans who are quitting their jobs (about 100,000 daily) and taking their talents elsewhere. A few of them perhaps work for you. The question […]
Stop Un-Recruiting
I read with interest a recent NY Times piece about the growing Brexit-inspired labor shortage spreading throughout Britain, as foreign workers across the breadth and depth of the workspace are deciding in droves to take their services where they feel more welcome. Something similar is happening in the U.S., as borders are tightened, nationalist interests are rising, […]