Why do so many smart leaders become avoidant when it comes to succession planning — anticipating and strategizing potential openings, shifts, new leadership, management, and functional contributor roles within the organization?
Here are some reasons why every organization, team, department, and solopreneurs needs to dedicate time and brainpower to succession planning. [Read more…]
I am fortunate to work as an executive coach with people at many levels, in different stages of their careers, and in a variety of industries. Even though there is significant variety and diversity in my client base, I am often struck how similar their thought processes and experiences are. This is particularly true when it comes to discontent. You’d think everyone would be complaining about wages, or lack of [Read more…]
Everyone wants feedback — my utility company after a service call, the airlines, hotels, Amazon, and Apple. They all are looking for insights on how they can serve me better and looking for any missteps or flaws in their delivery of products and services.
The same is true with your employees. I can’t tell you how often my executive coaching clients tell me, “I wish I knew where I stood with my supervisor.” Why should this be such a mystery? And, why is it so difficult for employers to give feedback to their staff? [Read more…]
I was administered my first 360 review as a Senior Manager. I was instructed to hand out forms to my direct reports that would be collected and scored. HR would let me know when the results were in. The day of reckoning came and I found myself in a room of other Senior Managers and the Head of HR. We were given an envelope containing our scores. As we opened our feedback sheets there was dead silence. Some people went pale, others got angry, there were many “whats!!!!,” a few seemed quite content. Everyone then stood up, left the room, and that was the last I ever heard of or discussed my 360 review. [Read more…]
Successful leaders give much time and thought to the creation and sustainability of their workplace culture. They generally focus on what organizational experts call the cognitive culture — the how we think, our integrity, behavior. Edgar Schein, former professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and an expert in organizational development, divides cognitive culture into three categories: the artifacts (the things that are visible such as rituals and office settings), espoused values (strategies, goals, and how we represent ourselves to the customer), and shared assumptions (beliefs), all of which contribute to the foundation of an organization. [Read more…]
How do successful leaders get more done and manage to complete important work? How do they keep their priorities straight, vision clear, as well as have a personal life?
Through some casual research collecting information from my coaching clients, business and personal networking; reading blogs and articles, I have found some frequently applied practices or behaviors. [Read more…]
I recently watched an interview with Laszlo Bock, SVP of People Operations at Google. He was promoting his book “Work Rules — Insights from Inside Google that Transform How You Live and Lead.” The author addressed many issues from what he refers to as “Intellectual Humility” to “Let the Inmates Run the Asylum.” The area I thought most relevant to my readers was the chapter where he discusses “why hiring is the single most important people activity in any organization.” It’s all about recruiting and hiring people, and it debunks most of what you, and in the past I, have done to get high quality employees. [Read more…]
Things are not going well with your coworker, assistant, or colleague. You have the sense they are professionally sabotaging your career. How can you be sure? While it may be difficult to prove, there are warning signs you should watch for. Here are a few and how you might address them. [Read more…]
For most of us the “To Do” list is long and seemingly endless. It also is undisciplined and unorganized. Whether you rank your task by importance, due date, or by whom, there is a next step many people fail to take. That is asking the questions, “Should anyone do this job?”, “Who else could do the work?” and finally, “If I do it, how and why?” This in simple terms is the delete, delegate, or do criteria. [Read more…]
As most of you know, I focus most of my executive coaching on workplace issues. Granted, many of the so called “issues” are problems many people wish they had — how to get to the next level, enhancing your branding and delivery of self, and transforming yourself from a manger to a leader.
What happens when a manager or executive has self-destructive or organization-harming leadership behaviors? Then what do we do? How do they change? [Read more…]