Until recently, it was largely left to chance that good leadership would organically emerge in an organization, a la Steve Jobs (like him or not, Jobs was great leader). By default, leaders evolved from a process of ‘Survival of the fittest’ and some of the leaders that survived did so because they knew more about [...]
Take a look at this example of a standard engineering process system. This card came from a user organization where productivity is a messy word (the names have been scrubbed to protect the innocent). Organizations need process – the manufacturing business in particular. This particular effort at a process to address problems starts off with [...]
Counterintuitive solutions for … Consulting, Coaching and Leading. We sometimes look to best practices to find answers surrounding what’s vexing our team or a client. Some clients even expect the consultant to solve the ‘problem’!! But, does this help drive progress and change? Possibly, but only if we acknowledge the following: Every case is different. [...]
Bring customer dialogue out of the shadows of the marketing research silo. A while ago I wrote a piece, Why Bring Customers to the Table to Co-create Strategy. After using approach in some recent client work it’s all the clearer that it’s a powerful change management strategy. Customer co-creation is not new. When the organization engages [...]
Should we care if a team has a vision? Too idealistic? First of all, Thomas A. Stewart wrote, The 4 Types of Teams All Leaders Need to Understand. Good point! We know there are different types of leadership and that most people have a dominant style and several secondary styles that they use situationally. So too [...]
Webinar Replay: Building Quality Consulting and Training Solutions for Organizations from April 16 2012
I know an organization that consciously avoids decision making. It’s their default position and it seems as though they’re always losing ground. Compare that to Apple’s Steve Jobs legacy of arrogant decisiveness! Organizations make a vast aray of individual and collective decisions. Yet, save for a few like Richard Branson many give little thought to [...]
BRAND IS THE CUSTOMER’S EXPRESSION OF YOUR BUSINESS PLAN! There, I said it in red! This applies to all business plans – regardless of whether they’re B2C or B2B. It’s more than your marketing plan! Ajay Sirsi PhD Marketing Professor at Schulich asserts that marketing should not be a function, but a competence of the [...]
When was the last time someone said to you, ‘You made a big impression on me when we met’? Asking better questions about the person you are meeting for the first time is critical. We have to create value for them right away. Rajesh Setty recently raised this point, Why Many Smart People Fail to Make [...]
You’ve finally got your meeting with an important executive in your organization or a client prospect… But she/he has invited 4 staff people…surprisingly, they’re arguing with you about your proposal What’s wrong with this picture? Did you neglect to start getting ‘buy-in’ for your solution before your pitch?!! It doesn’t matter if you’ve got great content [...]
