I Don't Want to Hear "Hopefully"
The foundation of accountability is commitment. When one is committed to accomplishing something, the hesitation and fear are replaced by resolve and energy. When one is not committed, they tend…
Why You Need Your Own Best Practices
There are very, very few companies that have been great over a long time. It's as if they were able to assemble an organization, a strategy, a culture, and product/services…
5 Key Levers for Successful Strategy Execution
Most strategies fail to achieve their objectives, not because the strategies are faulty, but because the implementation is weak. It’s like building a beautiful jet airplane requiring 5000 feet to…
The One Thing Most Leaders Don't Know About Culture Change
When planning any sort of culture change, be aware that culture change often has an impact on customers and vendors. This is particularly true when making a strategic change in…
Seven Causes of Poor Company Performance
Over the years that I have worked with companies to improve performance, just about every cause of poor performance can be traced to one or more of the following: Lack…
Ten Reasons Why Strategies Fail
There isn't a strategy. The strategy is distributed in 3-ring binders, everyone celebrates getting that done and thinks the strategy will implement itself. The strategy is actually an operations improvement…
How to Use Your People Time
Here's what works: Divide your workforce into three groups based on their performance: The top 20%, the middle 70%, and the bottom 10%. On which group do you spend most…
Improving Management Development
David Ogilve, the advertising guru, once noted that half the money spent on advertising is wasted; the problem being that no one knows which half. The same could be said…
Improving the Value of Your Workforce — One Person at a Time
As a leader or manager, one of your tasks is to continually increase the value of your workforce. Usually this means training and developing groups. But you should also be…
When Poor Performance is Caused by the Boss
When analyzing a performance problem, I've found it often pays to look at the supervisor or manager and how they manage their people. Examples: Micromanaging Unclear or no accountabilities Weak…
How leaders' behaviors affect their people
Someone (I think it was Woody Allen) said that the role of the leader is to demonstrate how to act to his/her people. It's sound advice. The most admired leaders…
Who has the more difficult talent challenge? Small, Medium, or Large Companies?
Small growth companies face a tougher talent environment than medium and large companies. Here's why: While they all share the challenge of finding workers with the needed work ethic and…
Leading by Looking in the Rearview Mirror
Past performance data is great for identifying problems and trends, but sooner or later you have to shift your focus to next month, next quarter, next year, and beyond. Planning,…
Escape Velocity for Cultural Gravity
Your company has a culture. It's the values and beliefs that cause certain behaviors. For example, if people are routinely late for meetings or if there is a stampede to…
Want More Accountability in Your Organization? Do This.
If you want to build accountability within your organization, you have to identify the results to be achieved. It is necessary, but not sufficient, to be concerned with behaviors, activities,…
Here's What Builds a High-Performance Team at the Top
If you want to build a high-performance team at the top, you've got to have managers who are professionally close. The big mistake many companies make is to dream-up "team"…
Take Less Action — And Get Better Results
Managers become quite adept at problem solving which involves taking action to bring performance back up to where it once was. You know the drill: An individual's performance declines, a…
The Key Difference Between Bureaucracy and High-Performance
Of the things high performers hate most, bureaucratic organizations are in second place (weak supervisors are first.) The key difference between bureaucracies and high-performance organizations is how they value both…
Your Prompt for Action
One of the hallmarks of my work is to help leaders take action. I spend very little time on the theory of leadership because my clients have read enough leadership…
Connect Your People to Strategy
Mark Twain once said that he never let his schooling interfere with his education. I've always liked that saying because it differentiates between specific learning and broader education. A good…
What Leaders Don't Know — But Should
Executives, and most of all, Chief Executives, need to be concerned about the information they are NOT hearing. There are many reasons why the information they get is filtered, even…
How to Spark Real, Dedicated Innovation
A strategic vision is, by far, the least appreciated element of strategy, yet it has the power to focus the strategy, energize innovation, and mobilize an entire organization. There are…
Apple's Values Drive Their Business — Do Yours?
I watched a Charlie Rose interview with Joni Ives last week. Ives is the now legendary head of design for Apple -- the guy who worked so closely with Steve…
What to do with a weak change sponsor
Successful organization change requires a number of factors. Perhaps the most important is sponsorship -- the clear and continual reinforcement of the change message by the top leader, and all…
Why Leaders Need Objective Feedback
An executive I began coaching shared a concern that people did not participate in meetings. When I sat in to observe, the problem was readily apparent: He would frequently interrupt…
Prevent Bureaucracy in Your Organization
Bureaucracy can show up in even the most entrepreneurial company. It’s when people get so fixated on inputs and process that they don’t value outputs and results. You see it…
How to Reduce Organizational Stress and Dysfunction
Alvin Toffler wrote in the 1970s about how the world was going to experience change as never before. He was correct. Toffler he said that a primary concern would be…
Want to improve leadership? Don't stop with the leader.
The most important factor in developing highly-successful organizations is leadership. But leadership won't be improved only by improving one person. You also need to improve key people who report to…
Powering Employee Engagement
The ability to envision your company's future is important to formulating business strategy. Yogi Berra said, "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else." It's also…
Taking the Lead in Managing Growth
I'm involved a quite a few strategic planning projects right now. They are all different, certainly in subject matter, but also in terms of how the leader sees his/her role. …
Four Types of Employees and How to Manage Them
I see four kinds of employees in every organization. Here's how leaders need to manage them: High-performers who are excited about opportunities and getting results. They need to see leaders…
How Great Leaders Navigate Strategy
Here is a list of what my best clients do: Understand that your commitment to the strategy is on the line everyday. Lead strategy formulation and implementation. Communicate strategy over…
Should You Fit the Job to the Person, or the Person to the Job?
When I work with a client on organization structure, the question often comes up: "Should we design the job around the person we have, or design the organization structure and…
Executives vs. Managers
In my consulting and coaching, I usually see clear distinctions between upper and lower levels of management on a number of factors including how time is used, people management skills,…
How exceptional leaders listen
I've met, observed, and worked with hundreds of leaders -- only a couple dozen or so who I've considered to be extraordinary. While they've differed considerably in their leadership and…
Do your people talk about results — or activities?
During the many years I've been working with companies, the characteristics of high-performing and ineffective organizations is stark. In high-performing companies, people talk about the many ways to achieve significantly…
How to Get Your Organization On the Same Page
This newsletter is entitled "On the Same Page." It can refer to many things including an orchestra whose members are following the score, or the dramatis personae of a play,…
How to Achieve Leadership Power and Influence
If you want to establish strong leadership power and influence, learn what it means to establish "referent" power. It is far more effective than power based on position, title, or…
Strategies to Accelerate Company Growth
To dramatically grow your business, you've got to execute. Even it you've got a great strategy, how it is executed makes all the difference. I've compiled a list of 19…
Executive Game-Changers
Over my career I've worked with at least a thousand executives, including hundreds of CEOs and presidents. The best ones aren't so concerned with making incremental improvements -- that's what…
Making Conflict Productive
Think about it...when people are in conflict they are stimulated, passionate, and energized. That's what you want -- not passive harmony and predictable routines. Instead of seeing it as something negative…
Employee Engagement is a Byproduct
Just like productivity, quality and employee retention, Employee engagement is an end result, a byproduct, of doing a number of things right. Instead of acting to "engage" employees with any…
If You Really Want to Stop Being a Micromanager, Do These
Lately, I've worked with a several leaders who admit that they micromanage and want to stop. The problem is that they don't know how to do it. I've found that…
3 Signs of a Successful Strategic Planning Process
Of course increased revenue, profits, and market share are the real outcomes, but here are three ways you can tell if your organization is focused on your strategy: Every participant…
For Best Organizational Performance, Don't Benchmark
Benchmarking is a tried-and-true approach for operational processes, but it should not be used to determine how best to structure or lead an organization. Yeah, I know, finding out what…
From Micromanager to Effective Leader
When people are micro-managed, they become self-conscious, intimidated, mistake avoiding, and fearful. They wait for orders, subdue their creativity, and rarely make suggestions. That's not the kind of people you…
Support Your People
I've seen managers and executives who seem to be obsessed with looking for what their people are doing wrong or mistakes they've made. And I've seen some play one-ups-manship and…
Restructuring? More Ideas for Success
Last week I wrote about key elements of restructuring. Here are a few more practical tips from my years of working with scores of organizations going through change: Your strategy…
Practical Tips for Successful Organization Restructuring
Practical Tips for Successful Organization Restructuring If you're doing an acquisition, merging, wanting to be more market or customer-focused, or restructuring to cut costs, the last thing you want to…
3 Keys to Increasing Innovation
There's a lot of talk about innovation these days. Much of it is academic and lacks practical application. Here are three important tactics from my work helping companies become more…
My Takeaways From Megan Smith, Chief Technology Officer of U.S.
Last week I attended M.I.T's graduation to see my son receive his Ph.D. in Aeronautic and Astronautic Engineering. The guest speaker was Megan Smith, Chief Technology Officer of the United…
Make Your Strategy Sessions More Engaging
Strategy should be exciting, challenging, and stimulating. It should elicit the very best thinking of your key people, get the creative juices flowing, build enthusiasm, and get them on the…
How Strategic Planning is Changing
Gone are the days of big binders with detailed projections, economic analyses, and all the other stuff that is old even before it is put in binders and distributed. Here…
Culture Change: What Works…and What Doesn't
I am working with three companies on their cultures, and regularly find misconceptions about what it takes to change or strengthen corporate culture. Additionally, while many leaders want to improve…
Practical Gems From Excellent Leaders
From my observations over 30 years of consulting, coaching, and executive work: The best leaders know that people respond to excellent managers, challenging and stimulating work, and high-level opportunities to…
Are You An Effective Communicator?
90% of managers believe they are good or excellent communicators, while the people they're leading put that number at about 20%. That is pretty much universal. What makes for an…
Weak Company Performance and Great Employee Reviews
My most successful clients are very good at aligning individual goals with strategic intent so that everybody is actively working to achieve the company's strategy and acting like an owner…
Cultivate Leadership Talent
My wife has a large garden which produces an abundance of vegetables we eat throughout the year -- we still have garlic, beans, hot peppers, and frozen veggies like peas,…
Emphasize results, not deliverables
I don't know where this came from, but I hear way too many people talking about deliverables. Maybe it's because a deliverable is better than lots of activity, but what…
What are your obstacles to growth?
What obstacles are in your growth path? Most of my clients are pushing hard for growth right now. If that's you too, I have one question for you: What are…
Those Self-Correcting Problems
Back in my college days I used to hitchhike the 300 miles to school. One day I hitched a ride with a couple. Enroute, the car's engine made an odd…
Do Values Matter?
There is a great story about Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines where "Fun" is one of the primary values. Apparently a customer didn't like that a flight attendant was having…
Autocratic vs Self-Managed Teams
The next time you form a team, consider this: While both supervisor-led teams and self-managed teams can be just as productive, there is a one big difference. Without the supervisor…
When You Need to Change People's Behaviors
When working with leaders to change people's behaviors, I've found the most effective approach is to appeal to rational self-interest and use carrots rather than sticks. As an example, Ohio…
The Payoff of a Learning Organization
We learn steadily, every day. And good companies do too. The best companies have hundreds or thousands of employees gaining more knowledge and working better every single day, accruing knowledge…
You'll Never Get Commitment Using Logic
In response to one of my recent emails concerning commitment, several clients asked, "So what are the leadership steps to getting commitment?" Here's one of the most important: Don't rely…
Strategic Planning is Rapidly Changing
Long gone are the thick binders GE used decades ago to create detailed plans for the next five years. Even the approaches pioneered in the early 1980's based on an…
Getting More In-Tune With External Changes
One of the highest concerns of presidents I talk with these days is how to create an organization that is more proactive in sensing external change, and more responsive when…
Consensus Is Not Commitment
Getting consensus is good -- but commitment is essential. I have seen leaders who spend all their time getting their team to reach consensus, but fail over and over again…
The #1 Problem in Leadership Development
It's the fallacy that if someone understands the theory, or the practice, or simply what to do, that he or she will do it. We see it all the time:…
The Best Answer to "What's Your Strategy?"
I like to ask CEOs what their business strategy is. Sometimes I get a crisp, clear response, but often the answer either is a bunch of words without clarity, or…
The Essence of Building Accountability
Instilling accountability is very important. It is the fast track to commitment, performance, and people development. Unfortunately, way too many leaders, managers, and supervisors see accountability as making people responsible…
How to Build a Winning Team
An article in Saturday's Wall Street Journal about a high-school cross-country coach in suburban Syracuse was fascinating. His teams have won nine national titles in nine years without superstar runners.…
People Don't Hate Change
Leaders will sometimes tell me that people hate change. But it's not true. Nearly all of my work involves some amount of organization change. Sometimes it's broad, sweeping change in…
How the best teams work
Many leaders today still subscribe to the idea that everyone reporting to them must conform to the leader's thoughts and opinions--both before decisions are made, and after. This slavish devotion…
The Wisdom of Giving Thanks
This is Thanksgiving week in the United States. It's a time to give thanks to your coworkers, your employees, your customers, and vendors. And especially to give thanks to your…
Changing the Micromanager
In the news last week were Robert Gates, Leon Panetta, and other former members of the Obama cabinet decrying the micromanagement that has characterized the administration's style. A micromanagement style…
Chances are you have only one of these two critical leadership skills
Excellent companies--those who excel for the long-term--are good at both the analytics of costs and efficiencies, and in improving their organization's ability to learn, innovate, and adapt to change. The…
The Key to Stop Micromanaging
Growing a business is not easy. The challenge is particularly acute for entrepreneurs who successfully launch a business, but soon find that the leadership style that got the business to…
What Leaders Can Learn From Starlings and Fish
Over the weekend I witnessed an enormous flock of starlings in an undulating swarm constantly changing direction and formation but always maintaining their speed and close formation. It reminded me…
The most important factor in successful organizational change
Most attempts at organization change fail. Even if the change is eventually successful, the cost is often far higher than necessary. Those costs include complaints from people who feel threatened,…
Leveling Mt. Stupid
General Motors continues to have problems--the kinds of problems going through a bankruptcy instead of being bailed-out might well have corrected. GM's stock has fallen to below the post bankruptcy…
Can strong management inhibit innovation and change?
Today's business world requires innovation and change and companies that aren't good at these can quickly run into difficulty. But often overlooked is the role of current operations in constraining…
6 Ways Your Board Can Help Your Strategy Succeed
An important factor in implementing your strategy is getting your board involved. Yet many of the boards I work with spend way too much time on the past--reviewing operational updates…
The problem with improving innovation
For years I've helped companies improve innovation in a number of ways, and I continue to find that innovation itself is widely misunderstood. Innovation is how companies rapidly grow revenues…
Stop kidding yourself about leadership change
In my work with hundreds of leaders and managers, it's become clear that a company's overall leadership won't become better by improving a single leader. That's because the environment, the…
The Key to Improving Performance
Imagine you're in the passing lane of highway. There are several cars in a line just ahead of you so you cannot go any faster, but another car is very…
What Apple knows about communications
I attended my high school reunion over the weekend and it reminded me that the most powerful communication between people is a shared experience. It is, perhaps the single most…
How to get an organization working as a whole
In the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. military attempted to "synchronize" all forces--getting them all to work together in order to concentrate forces. While it may have appeared to be…
How to spot real accountability
One of the most misunderstood, misused, and yet important factors of organizational success is accountability. I find that tough-talking leaders are often the worst at building accountability in their organizations. …
Four reasons you're not developing leaders
In my experience, many companies are not effective at developing leaders for one or more of these four reasons: Senior management doesn't talk about leadership development Everyone is too busy…
Why many attempts at employee engagement
Why many attempts at employee engagement are really just another form of control. http://boblegge.wordpress.com/
How Strong is Your Leadership Pipeline?
Recently I gave a talk at the New York Bankers Association Senior Management Conference about how to sustain a high-performance organization. One key to sustainable performance is having a strong…
The best way to improve performance, mot
The best way to improve performance, motivation, and engagement. http://boblegge.wordpress.com/
People have to motivate themselves–mana
People have to motivate themselves--managers cannot do it for them. http://boblegge.wordpress.com/
People have to improve their own perform
People have to improve their own performance--managers can't do it for them. http://boblegge.wordpress.com/
On performance, motivation and engagement
People improve their own performance. It's an individual accountability. Leaders can provide the ways and the means for people to do that, but leaders cannot do it for them. Similarly,…
Why you probably don't know your organization culture
If you ever had a doubt about the impact of culture, just look at the Veteran's Administration, General Motors, Target, or the many other current examples of behavior gone wrong.…
What's your succession plan?
I spoke last week at the New York Bankers Association Senior Management Conference on strengthening leadership pipelines. Succession plans and leadership development are critically important in the banking industry where…