Gary was a very competent and confident CEO. His people knew he was an expert and would mostly lead them down the right path. That however, didn’t stop them not trusting him. It didn’t stop good talent from leaving. The reason they didn’t trust Gary was that they felt Gary did not care for them. […]
I’ve read people claiming leadership is now dead, and it’s the time of the team. They then go on to promote their expertise in team building. I say “What a load of bull – – it!” At worst, formal leadership may be absent in team, unsatisfactorily replaced by haphazard informal leadership and group-think. Teams need […]
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 […]
It seems the world is in turmoil with uncertainty of global political stability; accelerating technological change; commoditisation of services; loss of trust in the validity of information from and through the media and the growing impact of climate change. 2017 is shaping up to be a very interesting time, though not without hope and the […]
That you will never stop developing yourself, for we need you at your ever developing best. That you will always model and champion our highest values. That you will gather those around you who are even smarter and more capable than you, for you need us to achieve the vision and you don’t know everything. […]
There are many talented leaders out there who are severely limited by their unhealthy ego. Here are the top three causes of that unhealthy ego: Fear They fear being wrong; being ‘found out’; losing their illusion of control; losing their position. They often disguise it with expressions like ‘I’m concerned’; ‘I don’t like’; ‘not right […]
With too few exceptions, the effective leadership deficit is rampant in all sectors of the global community, in politics, commerce, community and family. Exacerbated by the fourth industrial revolution – artificial intelligence and robotics; by value chain disruption and the failure of traditional political and business models, there has never been a time when effective […]
John (name and identifying data changed) asked me to coach him. He’d recently been appointed as the CEO of his engineering firm, which provides turnkey process infrastructure. John is an engineer and for the last four years had been the senior engineer in charge of production output, reporting to the previous CEO. He asked me […]
Making strategic decisions is a skill learned best by practice. We can always correct a faulty decision; however, we prefer to make the right decision in the first instance, don’t we? Here’s a simple checklist I use to help me and my clients make strategic decisions: What’s the goal? What are the useful relevant facts? […]
Your company appears to be doing OK. Sales are strong, even growing with new accounts. You have a few rainmakers doing a great job bringing in those new accounts. The rainmakers are well incentivised; the reward system is working. Existing customer sales have plateaued, but that’s understandable in the current economic climate. Your CFO […]
