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Is it Time to Tune Up Your Firm’s Values?

By |2024-08-08T13:48:18-05:00December 4th, 2008|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|

While Mission is the “reason for being” of a firm, the organization’s clearly stated Values are supposed to define critical behaviors, offer context for decision-making and generally serve as bedrock for defining culture. And like Mission descriptions, the Values are often collections of lofty thoughts that are so far removed from the minds and actions of employees as to be nearly useless.

In Search of a Quantifiable Return on Leadership Development

By |2024-08-08T13:48:33-05:00October 22nd, 2008|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|

very few months, I run head-on into a discussion with someone (usually a prospective client) about how to value the return from investments in leadership development. The question is not asked as a means of qualifying my services, but rather as a genuine practitioner-to-practitioner inquiry, not dissimilar to what two MDs might talk about with respect to the latest treatment results for an experimental drug program. The person asking knows as well as I do that Return on Leadership Development continues to be an elusive issue that no one has substantively put to rest, and that our best answers are no stronger than impassioned, qualitative opinions.

Surviving and Prospering Under a Weak Leader

By |2024-08-08T13:48:34-05:00October 21st, 2008|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|

Learning to manage your team leader takes time and requires extraordinary care and handling. Being indecisive and failing to set direction are big shortcomings for a leader, but leaders that carry these attributes are all too common. You and your peers can either let the water-cooler complaints dominate the daily agenda or you can do something about it. Teams and individuals that have leveraged some or all of the suggestions above have reported some nice successes. No complete cures, but some nice successes and sustained progress in the right direction. When your feet are cast in concrete, progress of any kind is good.

Weak Leadership at the Top Derails The Pursuit of Performance Excellence

By |2024-08-08T13:48:35-05:00October 20th, 2008|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|

While some top executives err on the side of asserting a dictatorial style of leadership that poisons the working environment and stifles independent action, in my experience, many more struggle with just the opposite. Instead of overwhelming their associates with strict orders in pursuit of rigid targets, they default on their responsibility to set direction in a poorly constructed attempt to create an environment of empowerment. The results of this approach include endless discussions without resultant actions and massive frustration of well-intended personnel that want to move projects and ideas forward.

Leadership Development: “This is Squishy Feely” Stuff

By |2024-08-08T13:48:36-05:00October 8th, 2008|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|

It’s not uncommon to run into resistance from the senior members of an organization that has just recognized that it might be good to professionalize and improve talent development and acquisition processes. I can even understand the “Squishy Feely” comment coming from a grizzled functional veteran that grew up in a world where the topic of talent identification, development and retention was not as front and center as it increasingly is today. However the statement: “We’re not going to do this,” is impossible to fathom. It’s a lot like saying, “It’s good to be ignorant.” Or, “It’s OK not to breathe.”

Good People or Good Ideas? The Importance of the Working Environment

By |2024-08-08T13:49:06-05:00September 10th, 2008|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|

After many years of leading and now several years of working with aspiring and experienced leaders in all manner of industries and cultures, I remain convinced that most individuals lack proper context for their role as leaders. The great leaders at all levels understand that they have a unique responsibility and unique power to adapt and form their working environment to the unique circumstances at a point in time. Less effective leaders allow the environment to form around the wrong issues including ego (theirs) and petty politics. The lessons of Pixar are hard-won and the outcomes visible to all. You would be well served to listen, learn and apply some of Mr. Catmul’s wisdom to your environment.

What’s A Good Meeting Anyway?

By |2024-08-08T13:49:09-05:00September 2nd, 2008|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|

I’ve heard the phrase “We had a good meeting,” or some derivative of it so many times that I’ve lost count. Whenever I hear this meeting review or it’s ugly stepchild, “We talked about a lot at that meeting,” alarm bells start ringing, my spider sense tingles and I have to resist the sudden urge to scream. I know then that I am in the company of a Professional Meeting Attendee!

Are You Making Progress?

By |2024-08-08T13:49:11-05:00August 27th, 2008|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|

Not surprisingly, it’s often difficult for senior executives and management teams to gain objective feedback on their individual and collective performance. I’ve worked with clients and in organizations where the management team was generally satisfied with their own performance and would give themselves high marks at a time when the employees would give them lower or even failing grades. In all cases where I’ve observed this perception gap, there was no objective, systematic means of measuring performance and perceptions in place.

The Leadership Art (and Importance) of Encouraging Constructive Dissent

By |2024-08-08T13:49:14-05:00August 21st, 2008|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|

This topic goes to the heart of creating an effective feedback culture—one where everyone is comfortable tackling the tough topics and highlighting when the Emperor has no clothes. The discomfort of a team in expressing alternative viewpoints with a leader is one sign that all is not right with the feedback culture. In many cases, some simple behavioral adjustments and appropriate reinforcement on the part of the leader can open the spigot to some great ideas from some smart people. Remember, the contest is in the market for the hearts, minds and dollars of your customers, it’s not in your team meetings to show that you’re the smartest.

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