A long-time client returned to coaching with me last week. What brought her back now was the classic challenge of working with a co-founder who has such different strengths that it is often extremely frustrating to work together. As a visionary leader, she moves with lightning speed, turning corners quickly. She is a big-picture, future-focused, […]
A senior executive arrived on our call with frustration, agitation, and…hope. The need to fire a key leader in their organization had been brewing for at least a year. They had invested an enormous amount of time and energy evaluating their options while seeing the damage to morale and productivity spreading. The Rational Checklist They […]
I had the opportunity to step in and deliver a workshop last week with an Executive Leadership Team when a fellow Kolbe Certified Consultant tested with covid the day before. The reasons for the team retreat included both a massive growth goal and team dynamics that the leader didn’t feel capable of understanding and resolving […]
When we started the succession planning process with a client a couple years ago, I was surprised that the leading CEO candidate was a "tree person" because the outgoing CEO recommending this candidate to replace her was a "forest person." The firm had grown through a focus on innovation under the outgoing "Forest" CEO's tenure, […]
"Why does she do what she's doing if it's against her own instincts?" My client had asked me to do an onboarding session for a newly promoted manager on her team. This leader didn't understand why the manager said Yes to all the ideas of a collaborator she worked with regularly. The leader was confused by […]
That was the key question from a new client referred to me to facilitate a workshop for her team. As a VP at a Fortune 50 company, she was bringing her team of 25, from California to DC and beyond, together for Community Week at HQ in Chicago and wanted to kick off the week […]
We’re a month into 2023, and one thing that's clear is that the chaos and complexity of the past few years is not going anywhere, anytime soon...if ever. The layers of uncertainty and volatility, both internal and external sources, from personal to organizational to global, can be destabilizing for leaders and teams. They can cause […]
As you and your leadership team look at planning the calendar of events for the year, you are facing tough decisions about who will be required to attend which meetings and events in person...where, when...and why??!! It's better when we're together! You know that some events, meetings, and milestones would be so much better, more […]
Collaborative teams get more done and have more fun, so how do we take the “Dys-” out of Cross-functional teams? From startups to the Fortune 500, the first factor for selecting team members is almost always functional expertise. Makes sense…that’s why they’re cross-functional teams. The problem is when that’s the only thing considered. Let’s look […]
New Year! New Goals! Same Challenges!!??! In a 2015 survey by BPI Network, top global executives reported the following obstacles holding back innovation in their organizations: Fear of failure: 42%. Politics and silos: 37%. Resistance to change: 31%. Lack of CEO/Board commitment: 25%. Lack of innovation leadership and empowerment: 24%. The list was dominated by people problems. […]
