...but you can't make him drink. I have learned a lot working with horses. They are emotionally honest creatures, tuned into their senses for survival. If the water you want a horse to drink has arsenic in it, you might not know it but the horse would. That deep instinct may or may not be [...]
I have played this game with CEOs I’ve coached and it’s clearly not a game. It is an assessment of where you are now and how you might essentially reconstruct your future based on what is working and what is not working to get you to your goals. Simple and profound, the exercise can be [...]
“The ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage since very few organizations are very good at it.”- Dr. Peter Drucker Making good decisions about people means elevating “people” to a strategic conversation. It means inviting HR into the inner sanctum. REALLY. That is not an [...]
Trustworthiness requires being willing and able to be vulnerable. A dictionary definition would say that vulnerability is being susceptible to physical or emotional injury. In this case, it means emotional injury — being "available" emotionally such that you care sufficiently. If something goes awry, you feel it. I ran smack dab into vulnerability 16 years ago, [...]
This question is for the senior executive team to ask themselves or an HR discussion with the executive team: "Are we tolerating less than ‘A’ player performance, perhaps by not clearly defining ‘A’ performance? Or by letting ‘B’ performers slide even with clear performance objectives? Or by allowing personalities inside or outside of work influence [...]
Seeking the truth. Finding the truth. Facing the truth. Communicating the truth. It takes an extraordinary commitment to the truth to seek it and frankly not everyone is interested. Some people like their own version of reality just fine, thank you. It’s hard to make a difference with these people. Serious truth seekers don’t fit [...]
Remember this premise from Jim Collins in his book Good to Great? “When we began the research project, we expected to find that the first step in taking a company from good to great would be to set a new direction, a new vision and strategy for the company, and then to get people committed [...]
Would you admit to any of the litany of excuses for why you can’t get, find or employ ‘A’ Players in your organization? • Hope maybe Jack will improve over time. He just needs better (fill in the blank). • I don’t want to admit a mistake to my board. (Read I don’t want to [...]
As a facilitator of CEO business support groups, I held conversations with candidates for my groups to discern the likelihood that they would be good listeners. I distinctly remember one CEO who told me, “I take only my own counsel. No thank you.” I had had candidates suggest it, carry that attitude, but never had [...]
Here’s a proposition for you: Take your leadership insecurities to your peer group for review. Consider that sometimes when you are “being right” you are really being arrogant and it is costing you credibility. The downside of “being right,” when dealing with a subordinate, can be costly. For example, if an employee isn’t feeling heard, [...]
