How To Lead Up Without Embarrassing the Leader

Feb 19, 2019 | Leadership Development

I had the opportunity to watch a leader ‘lead up’ last week. A new client had asked me to attend their board meeting so I could gain a better understanding of their organization, history, culture, and their future. It was an incredibly informative experience. However, it was informative in a way I don’t believe they anticipated. Due to the Chair’s lack of leadership over the past 15 years, he’s unwittingly created a highly-dysfunctional board, comprised of otherwise highly-talented directors....

How Valuable Is Your Time?

Jan 22, 2019 | Leadership Development

How valuable is your time? I’m not asking what your hourly pay or rate is, but rather, how important is your time to you in ensuring your organization’s success? An indication of how much you value your time is how you use it. As leaders, our intentional use of our time is indicative of what is most important to us as leaders. An organization’s strategic priorities are highlighted by which strategies and programs receive proper funding and management, and which do not. A leader’s priorities...

Strategic Workforce Planning – Build Depth & Develop Talent

Feb 26, 2018 | Succession Planning

The Vice President of Human Resources called. “I need to create a Strategic Workforce Plan for our company, get our leadership team on-board, teach all managers how to do this, and then implement this thing. How do I create this so it makes sense and doesn’t alienate everyone in the process?” That’s a great question, because the key issue is not “How do I do this?” The key issue is, “How do I get the leadership team on-board with me to design, implement, and use this plan to ensure we have a...

Would You Want to Work for “You”?

May 23, 2017 | Leadership Development, WBS

If you had the opportunity to work for yourself, would you? This question has been popping up in conversations with several clients lately. It’s come up during a board strategy session. It’s been discussed during coaching calls. And, it’s come up while discussing the challenges of working in a multi-generational workplace. The reason I ask the question is simple: Focus on yourself before you criticize your team. Focus on yourself before you criticize your team! It’s so easy to point out the...

Exceeding Customer Expectations

Jul 30, 2013 | Sales, Marketing & Customer Service

The “buzz” in customer management arenas continues to be “Customer Expectation Management”. Customer Expectation Management or CEM is a way of doing business that focuses heavily on delivering not only a quality product, but delivering that product with service that exceeds the expectations of the customer. Studies have shown, many companies and individuals will pay a higher price for a product, if they can do business with organizations that put quality customer service at the top of their...