Leaders must continuously be creating leaders up and down the organization.
You determine who will hold the keys.
Succession planning can be an intimidating subject for most everyone, but the fact is that it shouldn’t be. It’s not something that has to be overly complicated nor should it be viewed in a negative light. If handled properly it can be an amazing experience with new opportunities and optimism in its wake. As a follow-up to the previous article, “Changing of the Guard”, we would like to leave you with a letter passed on by one of our clients. […]
Written by: Don Hadley One of the biggest challenges organizations face today is “the changing of the guard”. The examples below briefly demonstrate how succession (or lack of it) can dramatically hurt or transform an organization: One disaster: The head of the company was almost 80 years old. He was having troubling recruiting and retaining leaders that wanted to run the organization. None of the existing employees, to his knowledge, had the desire, attitude, skills and habit to be able […]
We believe that hiring “A” players is the most important job within an organization and it can be one of the biggest challenges. To get and keep your top performers, you have to engage both their current skill sets and their future aspirations while demonstrating a culture of trust and respect. Rather than trying to identify what the exact answer is for you in your industry, we like to use ‘The Rule of 44.’ In four areas, have four different […]
Do you remember what it was like to be the scrappy young upstart in your company? You were probably full of ideas and boundless energy — but you were most likely overwhelmed by all the things you didn’t even know you didn’t know: how to navigate office politics, how to snag that promotion, how to make that pivot into a different path within your company. That’s where your mentor came in. A leader within the company who knew the ropes […]
In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Don Hadley, discusses the difference between consultants and guides. Let’s start with the definition of consultants: “People who provide expert advice professionally.” (from Merriam Webster) They then tell you what you need to do and then leave. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a guide as “a person who leads or directs other people on a journey.” The next time you are wondering if you should hire a consultant or if you have had […]
In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Don Hadley, discusses the importance of coaching. Sometimes leaders may say “I can’t do it.” However, coaching is not difficult. If leaders pay attention, ask very few questions and repeat back the information, it can be done. The value of coaching is causing the employees to think at a broader and deeper level. Do you ask direct questions? Do you listen attentively so you can help them dig deeper and broader? How […]
Imagine bowling with your boss… You throw the ball down the lane, but your boss has a sheet between you and the pins. You hear something happening, lots of noise, but no idea of what actually happened. How many pins are left standing? Where are they? Was that perhaps a gutter ball? You then ask how you are doing and the response is, “don’t worry about it, I will tell you at the end of the year.” Imagine this happening […]
We have a client who is planning to become President of an association shortly. We have worked with him, his business and his family for years. He is a good man who cares about the community and is involved and giving with his time and many causes. When we talked recently, we encouraged him to just be Joe Citizen: Joe Citizen with some of the job duties of being the President. Why? We want him to look through the other […]