My client held back tears as she explained to me how a powerful woman in the so-called C-Suite humiliated her in front of her employees. “Jim, you wouldn’t believe how she challenged everything I said–even common sense–and facts that she knew were true but wouldn’t admit it,” my client told me. “It was awful, just… Read more
Human Resource Management
A Story about Leaders, People and a Huge Win!
Regular Leadership Report readers know I’m more than a little obsessed with improving the numbers. I’m inherently an operations guy who likes to help people improve what they do–and make the improvements stick. That said, I just got some of the best news I’ve received in more than 30 years of consulting. A senior leader… Read more
Connecting the Workplace to the Marketplace
Many organizations could improve results if their external and internal communication worked together to improve the customer experience. For this to work, internal communication would need to broaden its role. Some are doing that. I recently addressed a conference of business communication professionals on the role of a trusted advisor, a term used by David… Read more
Come the Revolution! From Ideas to Outcomes…That Stick
Accenture’s CEO, Pierre Nanterme, recently told the Washington Post that consulting and professional services firms are undergoing a massive revolution. They’re moving from ideas to outcomes. “When you think about consulting you think about advisor services,” Nanterme told the newspaper. You think about delivering papers, PowerPoints, ideas,” he said. “I think the revolution is that… Read more
Pick a Pilot and Win
When you need to produce results fast, minimize risk of failure, perfect a concept and create demand for more, then pick a pilot, improve results and replicate. Historically, change efforts were massive, enterprise-wide affairs. Those still have their place. But increasingly, companies are adopting surgical approaches to change. They’re focusing on improving pieces of their… Read more
Does Your Communication Department Create Output or Outcomes?
One of our clients wants to enter 2015 drivel-free. That’s right. Drivel-free, as in free of babble, gibberish, or blather. This corporate communication department is on a march to shift from an expensive cost center that “puts out stuff” to one that creates value by fixing operational problems caused by poor communication. Leaders are increasingly… Read more
What Generational Differences?
I’ve had my fill of articles, studies and research about generational differences and the huge impact they will or are having on how we lead businesses today. I think it’s a bunch of bunk. Here’s why. I’m a baby-boomer and was influenced in one way or another by all the stuff that went on as… Read more
More Communication Departments Add Measurable Value
Why would a communication department deliberately absent itself from the place where it could add the most value? At one of our recent workshops I told the story of a communication manager who’d championed a project to improve on-time delivery in one of her company’s operations. It was an exceptional example of a communication function… Read more
Communication Pros Take Notice
In the mid-nineties, a University of Michigan professor named David Ulrich made a bold statement: “HR must give value or give notice.” Back then, many top companies were reinventing their human resources departments —shifting work from traditional personnel administration toward workforce capability building and dramatically increasing the value that HR contributed to their organizations. Fifteen… Read more
Is There a Best People Measure? Maybe Not.
Measurement is a powerful communication device. What you count counts. What you measure tells people what’s important. It drives actions people take and the results they create. When you try to measure too many things it may tell the people you lack priorities because “everything’s important.”