The annual performance appraisal ritual is time-wasting, profit inhibiting

, and morale-dampening.  The routine diminishes rather than adds value to most dispensing organizations. Although people want to know where they stand, they usually hate being on the giving or the receiving end.  Few senior executives are willing to challenge this sacred cow...

People who still view life through an industrial-age perspective can&#

Digital technology allows us to break up-transmit-and reassemble data.  This affords instant communication with no loss of quality and the unprecedented capacity to store and retrieve information.  Its predecessor transmitted information in tact.  The properties of analog communication transmission are structural—much like industrial age machinery...

In response to a  June 21st blog:  www.BrandingStrategyInsider.com (

My work with Fortune list CEOs on the pragmatic use of values, revealed that bad (unethical) behavior, typically correlates directly with CEO priorities—expressed explicitly or implicitly.  Bad behavior is capable of producing short term gains (an infusion of cash flow), but invariably concludes in long term pain; (the destruction or a reduction...

Today’s workplace doesn’t look like it did just a few years

ago — yet many people are operating from an industrial-age mindset that is no longer based on reality. Instead of looking at their job as a business relationship, they view coworkers as family. Instead of questioning their company’s direction and assessing the capability...

The digital revolution has eliminated the requirement for middle men. 

This transfer of power to field units has made middle officers obsolete.  In effect there is a “writing” component and an execution component…like the composer who creates music and scores it, so that players (think special force groups and their support units) are integrated in terms of pace and harmony.   The capacity to perform is the responsibility...

 Understanding how leadership and management have morphed to accommodate

...

 “The best laid plans of mice and men” The skepticism of Robert Burns

 I learned from that experience.  Long range planning is at best a waste of time and at worst dangerous.  Visioning by contrast, has become essential to the process of creating plans that work.  Planning is like being a naval Admiral.  It is serious and control oriented—demanding  commitment and performance.  Visioning by contrast, feels more...

When CEOs select then consistently repeat “power words”  during internal

conversations with themselves or during discussions with others, they are not only describing, they are actually starting to create. Because humans live in language, it is critical to eliminate  negative dialogue.  I heard a formula one racer say,  “to win, you have...

Most executives use metrics related to the output of group(s) reporting

directly or indirectly to their direct reports to assess the performance of each subordinate (what a poor choice of words).  For example the VP of sales is typically measured on sales numbers.  At first glance, this common practice makes sense, but using bottom line numbers exclusively...

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

from a mindset of knowing, to an attitude of not knowing…replacing their trust in knowledge and experience, with processes for finding out and taking action faster than the competition. The following outlines the  profile of a high performance culture—capable of profitabilityand...