change Archives

Has Your Management Team Decided to Be Successful Yet?

It is always great fun to work with management groups interested in growing their businesses, pursuing a new and bold vision or embarking upon new strategic directions. More often than not, these groups have enjoyed success, established themselves and their firm in a favorable position and have a common excitement about what the future might hold. They also talk about the fact that change will be necessary for growth, and it is usually about this point that the wheels start wobbling.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:19-05:00October 7th, 2008|Leadership, Leading Change|1 Comment

The Leader’s Challenge: Recognizing the Need for Change

I believe that it is important for organizations to develop competence at translating marketplace and macro-environmental changes into appropriate changes to better serve stakeholders. No easy task, especially considering the "noise" that we all face in this era of accelerating change, time compression and growing complexity.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:24-05:00June 15th, 2008|Leadership, Leading Change|1 Comment

From Strategy-Starved to Strategy-Fueled: It’s All About Communication

It's critical for leaders to recognize that organizations that broadly understand their strategy and employees that specifically understand how their activities and decisions impact strategy execution are going to defeat less-enlightened competitors. Strategy is not an abstract concept reserved for the deep-thought thinking sessions of senior leaders. Strategy is a powerful leadership tool to engage the hearts and minds of associates and to fuel performance.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:27-05:00April 2nd, 2008|Project Management, Strategy|1 Comment

Want to Change? Manage Strategy in Bursts!

Organizations that learn to work in “Strategy Bursts” are able to learn, adapt and refine their strategic activities faster than more plodding competitors, but this new style requires learning and internalizing a new approach to strategy management and execution. For many leaders and executives, succeeding with this new model requires letting go of old strategy habits and biases.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:27-05:00March 20th, 2008|Leadership, Project Management, Strategy|1 Comment

Leader: The Company Might Be Virtual, But the People Are Real

One of the wonderful benefits of modern technology is the ability of organizations to scale without investing in bricks and mortar. It is commonplace in a number of industries for people to work together for years and never set eyes on each other. It’s also common for the leaders in these virtual organizations to lose track of the fact that there are real people behind the e-mail and text messages. Over time, they reduce to faceless names behind occasional e-mails or text messages. Clearly, people choose a virtual professional lifestyle because they like the freedom and flexibility that it provides. However, when a virtual organization is faced with the need (or desire) to shift gears into a new growth mode or to change its strategy, it is essential that the leaders of this firm rethink their communication and engagement with their remote knowledge workers. For many technical leaders used to not communicating frequently with these invisible associates, this can mean a significant change in behavior.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:31-05:00January 24th, 2008|Leadership|1 Comment

A Dozen Interviews, Two Job Offers and Not One Discussion About Leadership.

A good friend that knows my passion for all things leadership, recently switched jobs and offered some comments on the nature of his dozen or so interviews. I paraphrase: "My leadership skills, experience or approach were not discussed during any of the interviews." I was shocked. "None of the top executives that I spoke with singled out and discussed leadership or people development during discussions about their business and strategy." I started to get depressed. And: "Nope, it wasn't covered with the recruiters either." I had a headache. What gives?

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:32-05:00January 14th, 2008|Leadership, Strategy|0 Comments

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