Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash My 21-year-old daughter slammed her door in frustration. Turns out she had not heard back from her 101st job application for over five weeks. “Why don’t you go to their office and ask to be interviewed” I asked her. “I’ve tried that a few times and was told to go home and […]
Ineffective leadership is the biggest reversible cost to a business. If the leadership is dysfunctional at the top, then it gravitates downwards, infecting leaders at other levels. However, dysfunction in leadership at any level will have a negative impact at all levels of the business. The costs come from loss of: - talent engagement productivity […]
George (name changed), the CEO of one of our clients, rang me and said “David, we’ve got a problem”. Turns out that two of five direct reports to George were proving to be the wrong fit. They were causing disengagement of talent in their teams and weren’t collaborating with the other three peers, an essential […]
Allowing or tolerating toxic behaviour in the workplace kills: productivity talent customers innovation Those four points are crucial components of an organisation’s purpose, capability and sustainability. Harvard Business School calculates that to replace a toxic worker costs $12489, compared to the $5303 benefit from hiring a top performer. A competent yet toxic employee does more […]
A prerequisite of effective leadership is the presence of courage. In this VUCA world (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) we are witnessing the presence of fear in many of our leaders across the board – fleeing, fighting or frozen. The symptoms are: Much talk, little action – ineffective meetings that lead nowhere. Confused understanding and […]
I recently wrote about the sad situation of disconnected directors. Too many leaders, directors executives or supervisors, are disconnected from the current reality and their people. The reasons are straightforward: In the case of directors, they have become more focussed on compliance and governance and the fear associated with directors’ liability. Consequently they can overlook […]
Imagine you are the CEO of a sizeable enterprise with annual revenue of circa $200 million. You are experiencing a recent and growing loss of talent. New hires aren’t staying much longer than six months and some of your longer term employees, even leader contenders are leaving too. Your enquiries make it clear to you […]
Gary (not his real name) is the managing partner of a second-tier professional service firm. At a recent partners’ meeting Gary asked the question: “What big thing do we need to address to take us to the next level or avert a potential problem?” It was a genuine question and he wanted his fellow partners’ […]
I’ve seen various lists of things that most CEOs supposedly worry about more than anything else. At face value, these lists are always convincing because everything they include looks important. Here are some typical examples: Talent retention Operating in a global market Compliance Cost efficiencies Performance Productivity Usually, one item is missing, although it’s really […]
I’ve spoken about succession planning and practice awhile ago. Since then I’ve been struck by the number of stories I’ve heard about the difficulty in finding good people, talent and those ready to step up to leadership. Globally it remains a primary challenge. As I look around my client base, a mix of government and […]
