Human behavior is complex, as are the situations in which people find themselves. Rarely is there a playbook for leaders for these situations, and often the decisions are not black and white. That being said, employees are more satisfied with leaders who demonstrate high character (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005). They want leaders who “do…
In today’s dynamic business environment, there is fierce competition, unmatched volatility and economic unpredictability. Every company seeks to embrace some innovations: automation and digitization, globalization, shared services, lean operations, big data, Internet of Things, blurred industry boundaries, regulatory shifts, etc. The greatest transformation challenges include: top-down structures, inability to experiment, limited change management capabilities, legacy…
I visited one of the top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley (Hollywood of Geeks). It doesn’t hurt their “surplus of talent” to have Stanford University nearby. Here are a few highlights of our conversation… Purpose of a VC is to accelerate the time to market for portfolio companies. They typically invest in people and culture…
I was facilitating a leadership development program for a global financial services firm, and the CEO spoke to the audience. Some key takeaways: Mitigate global external risks Price of oil decreasing by half Venezuela’s 100% annual inflation, which means corporate investments there decrease by 8-9% a month As Russia business expansion grows, the money falls…
This book by Andy Kessler has some key highlights: Engage in personal projects that you are passionate about; share your ideas and listen to other people’s ideas; prioritize your projects so you don’t sabotage yourself by trying to do everything; do what makes sense; be proactive Create a sandbox (community) for others to play in…
Even with geographical interconnection, most are not educated to work with people who are unlike us. We all bring our different ways of thinking, understanding, acting and communicating to the table and are not well versed in how to deal with intense diversity. Global leaders need a global mindset, which consists of three areas: Intellectual…
I was delivering a leadership development program for a medical device company recently. The CEO came in to provide some of his key leadership insights: Leaders don’t have the full information to make decisions…this is not unusual; it is every day. There are no easy answers; otherwise, a problem would have been solved instead of…
Innovation includes a mixture of insight and creativity, as well as a disciplined process that consistently promotes progress. It should be rooted in experimentation, then be adaptive and evolve over time as the external environment and internal needs change. Your strategy comprises choices on where and how to create growth and value. This is supported…
A VP Sales told me about his organization reading, “The Leak Is In Your End of the Boat” by Jay Galbraith. His take-away: Organizations with silos tend to create excuses, as they do not deal with company issues. Instead, they place blame towards another business unit, creating mistrust across the organization. To counter this, take…
Radio Shack, the 94 year-old electronics retail chain, filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy in 2015. At the end of 2014, they posted their 11th consecutive quarterly loss of $161 million on $650 million revenue…16% lower than the previous year. That year, their stock price eroded 95% to 13 cents and was delisted from the NYSE…
