Most new CEOs set a priority for having clear job descriptions (for

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First, get it through the Industrial-age riddled heads of your management

A great place to start the learning process is to accept that the future belongs to millennials..disregard at your peril..  YES!  They will require your wisdom and support.  YES! they must learn the people side of business. BUT NO!  they nor you will  benefit from forcing them to conform to your company’s current  knowledge and experience...

“To start a business, the CEO must be everything.  To grow a business

Radically shifting markets, a plethora of price challenging products, ever changing technology, and the unrelenting hand of time are making the aging owners of small to mid size businesses (SMBs) vulnerable. For many of them, this is a new and uncomfortable mindset. Fiercely independent, hard working, and resilient, the majority of SMB owners  have...

To survive and prosper in what is being referred to as the “shift

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Uncertainty is the new normal in what futurist David Houle calls the “

shift-age.”  The world will continue to move under your feet.  Working harder will not assure survival. Unless you are in a recession proof industry such as healthcare or agriculture, odds are your company will continue to struggle with tight budgets, uncertain cash reserves...

In the shift-age, speed and flexibility are major success factors.  Should

the situation change, time spent developing a detailed strategic plan may be at best a waste of time, and at worst a performance inhibitor.  A less detailed forward thinking process held more frequently may be sufficient to keep people aligned but flexible should the need...

As an executive coach and organization development consultant, I’ve

A major factor in senior team development is the CEO not allowing direct reports to slip off the hook—always holding them responsible and expecting performance. Holding toes to the fire and resisting the urge to bail out marginal performers makes for strong teams.  It’s not unlike the tough love strategy some parents use to help children understand...

“Those choosing to lead in the post industrial age must make a 180°

Transitioning your company from a dependence on personal authority (power, knowledge, and experience) to managing by process-discipline will be challenging because industrial age thinkers typically know—so they will have less compulsion to learn. Without continuous improvement, what your team knows will eventually start holding you back.  To grow...

what you believe is where you are goingMuch of the attitudinal and behavioral

dysfunction on shop floors and in our offices is the consequence of conditioning.  Prior to the 60’s, societal discipline came from a code of ethics framed by the constitution—we were a nation of laws. I believe that our historical conformance to the “rule of the law...

During tough economic times, new and less competent CEOs frequently resist

cutting back at the beginning of a downturn. Their rationale for resisting ranges from wishful thinking (things will soon improve) to a misguided attitude of paternalism towards surplus employees ( who have become redundant).  CEOs who cut back ahead of the curve manage...