Written by: Don Hadley As part of our ongoing effort to provide additional value to the business leaders in our community, everyone in our firm was “fired” on a recent Friday and given new titles and priorities beginning the following Monday. While it seems like a drastic tactic to try, the desired effect was achieved. As the newly appointed “Director of Continually Expanding Patterns of Thinking” my approach to things has changed.. Most businesses are struggling with issues […]
A 2016 survey of CEOs by PWC showed that a strong majority of business leaders — 55%— believe a lack of trust in the workplace constitutes a foundational threat to their company. Source: Forbes Trust is an interesting animal. It not only involves trusting someone’s intentions, but also their competence in being able to do what they say. It is more than trust in an individual, but also in ourselves, the process, the world, other people in general, life, etc. […]
The Wall Street Journal article is greatly appreciated because it highlights what occurs when an employee rating system is poorly implemented and used in organizations. However, it was an incredibly simplistic perspective. The perspective was that of someone who has only taken a cursory look at this approach, and we see this from newer employees and rookie leaders who have not thought through ratings systems properly in the past. It did not explain how powerful this approach can be if […]
Executive coaching isn’t just for executives anymore. Every day, we all engage with other people to accomplish things, whether at work or at home. The principles that apply to business world coaching easily translate to other types of relationships. All relationships come down to a few basic factors, the biggest of which are trust, honesty and dependability. In other words, each of the parties clearly states their needs and wants, knows the other person will work hard to help them […]
This is a tale of two managers. One committed suicide; the other young up and coming leader is helping a 79 year old business man learn to use Facebook. Millennials are 41% of the current workforce. By 2030, they will be 75% of the workforce. If you look at yourself and those of other generations, we may point our fingers at millennials for being different, yet we have taken on many of their characteristics. Most of this has been good, […]
Most of us realize that in order for our organization to realize the potential success we know is possible, a strategic plan must be in place. Common knowledge, right? According to a recent study of 26,000 start-up companies, 67% had no written plan. The same study found that businesses that have and use a strategic plan are 12% more profitable than those who have no plan. Ensuring the commitment of your team to the company’s vision and goals is a […]
The mind and heart can envision and feel great things, but so many times there is a disconnect in where we are today vs. where we desire to be. While there are many necessary pieces to bridging that gap, one of the key girders is accountability: the willingness to do what one says. Part of this is holding others accountable. There must be both individual and team accountability for a business to work effectively. I am reminded of Peter Block’s […]
Millennial Employees now represent the largest portion of the workplace. Organizations must adjust their day-to-day strategies to accommodate this group in terms of schedule, career path as well as reassurance of a job well done. In fact, 66% of American Millennial’s said they felt an organization that adopts a flexible, mobile and remote work model has a competitive advantage over one that requires employees to be in the office from 9am to 5pm, according to a Connected World Technology report. […]
In this “Drive Through With Don”, he discusses two different teams and the effect communication had on the success of the businesses. One team was struggling and frustrated and they communicated very poorly with each other. Poor communication damaged relationships, created mistrust among the team members and any efforts to turn this around were either blocked or given very little effort. Once a team becomes ineffective it bleeds over to customers and suppliers and before too long, the problem […]