Most people behave acceptably at work, despite too high a level of employee disengagement across the entire workforce. However there is a minority of people who behave unacceptably and are definitely disengaged. These people cause the greatest problems and weaken the enterprise culture dramatically. This is where I get most requests for help, when the […]
I ask that leaders of all persuasions be trained to lead, not just be technically or operationally competent. What’s tougher to learn – the technical or operational requirements or the complexities and diversity of people and their personalities? I know it’s the latter. Why do we spend years learning professions and other skills like project […]
In helping my senior leader clients master their role, I ask them to consider developing a pentagonal mindset. The foundational element is values. Values are the rules of the game, why and how we think and behave. To break them is to be in dishonour. A dishonourable leader has no future. The next element is […]
There are valuable corporate lessons to be learned from the FIFA scandal. For me the main lesson is the length of time a peak leader stays in the role, which is ultimately a succession planning issue. Whether a corporation of some sort or a government or even a dynasty, without a timely authentic ‘changing of […]
The research by Gallup shows that 82% of management appointments are the wrong people. Having the wrong people as managers is the greatest cause of employee disengagement, loss of productivity, less profit, and lost customers. On the other hand companies that choose or develop management talent outperform their competitors by 147% in earnings per share, […]
I sat before the C-level leaders, four of them – the CEO, the COO, the CFO, and the CIO. We were planning a development program for the direct reports to the C-level. I asked whether any of the C-level would attend. “No” came the firm reply, “We’re too busy and we’ve all done this sort […]
We all realise the value in developing leadership in our companies and community. Yet often we wonder whether it’s been worth it. Resolve this concern by insisting on the following: Ensure the content of the development program is contextualised to the needs of your enterprise. Insist that participants apply the learning to real workplace issues […]
Enterprises are learning that leadership matters much more than they thought. Sensibly, more investment is being made in leadership development. Here are the seven things buyers of leadership development programs need to know before they buy: Context – that the program is deeply contextualised to their business – full of story, culture, challenges and expertise […]
True: there are currently more male leaders than female in commerce and government. False: that means that male leaders are more capable than female leaders. Political correctness, equity, equality and culture have all had an impact on perceptions about which gender is best suited for leadership. I say that gender alone has no significance on […]
The HR Manager told me that we couldn’t call the leadership development project “coaching” because the CEO doesn’t believe in coaching for leaders. The CEO has stated that leaders should be developed enough to not need coaching; that they wouldn’t have made it thus far if they were deficient. That CEO and his Chief Operating […]
