I’m amazed when I see accomplished executives stumble at running productive meetings. This malady not only includes meetings with colleagues, but with clients and prospective business partners as well. Why is this happening and what can we do about it? As more companies become team-based, the number of meetings will continue to grow. According to an office design expert, companies should plan for twice as much meeting space as they did 20 years ago. With [...]

An excellent New York Times article, What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team, identifies essential elements in this quest—showing empathy and caring for one another. Doing this, as one Google manager says, means “We (can) talk about what is messy or sad, to have hard conversations with colleagues who are driving us crazy.” As leaders where do we start in building our own high performing team? The first step may be [...]

As the popular Barrett Strong song goes, “The best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and bees. I need money.” Most employers seem to share this mindset. The popular wisdom says bonuses or gifts are the best employee motivators. However, it turns out that the number one way to motivate employees is absolutely free. Positive feedback from a supervisor is something employees want but rarely get. A sincere [...]

  Since the Holiday season is well underway and New Year’s resolution time is just around the corner, it’s not too early to start planning on growing your company next year. Here are three important considerations before hiring an executive coach to assist you in your plans for 2016. These tips will help you make the best use of your investment once you begin making changes. Maintain your commitment to change Change is not easy. [...]

  Consider this question: Does culture trump strategy? If you believe articles like this one from the Harvard Business Review, culture trumps strategy every time the two are at odds. A common refrain we hear is “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In my experience, this is an oversimplification. Culture is the daily embodiment of an organization’s values and mission—regardless of what the CEO says are her company’s values and mission. If your organization is a ship, then culture is the [...]

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Top Dog? “The mark of great sportsmen is not how good they are at their best, but how good they are at their worst.” – Martina Navratilova Everybody loves an underdog. We admire the perseverance and tenacity they show when the odds are against them. We root for them to win, especially in sports. From Olympic arenas to high school stadiums, we find inspiration in unheralded [...]