4 Tips for Managing Organizational Change
27/09/2019
Walker and Walker/Getty Images Launching major transformation efforts is a common way business leaders try to get a leg up on the competition or just to keep their heads above water. But too many of these efforts fail. Change is difficult and many will not only resist it, but seek to undermine it. Unsurprisingly then, […]
Hire Leaders for What They Can Do, Not What They Have Done
25/09/2019
cranach/Getty Images Fifty years have passed since the publication of The Peter Principle, but its rule still applies today. “In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties,” noted Laurence J. Peter, the educator behind this famous work. His theory postulates that most competent people […]
6 Ways CEOs Can Prove They Care About More Than Shareholder Value
21/09/2019
Hiroshi Watanabe/Getty Images Somewhere, Milton Friedman must be spinning. Whatever they thought they were doing, the 181 CEOs who signed the Business Roundtable’s breakthrough statement on the purpose of corporations embraced a much wider interpretation of corporate responsibility—signalling the beginning of the end for the shareholder primacy cult. The pressure on business leaders to declare […]
How to Avoid Groupthink When Hiring
19/09/2019
Henrik Sorensen/Getty Images When it comes to hiring, democratic decisions lead to better outcomes. There is wisdom in crowds when it comes to spotting talent. When Google tracked the performance of recent hires against their interview ratings, the company found that averaging the ratings of a group of interviewers was by far a more accurate […]
It’s Time for a C-Level Role Dedicated to Reskilling Workers
19/09/2019
Tara Moore/Getty Images Although corporate leaders have talked about skills gaps for years, the spread of automation and artificial intelligence is prompting some of the biggest companies — including Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, SAP, Walmart, and AT&T, to name just a few — to take action, not with small pilots but with comprehensive plans to retrain […]
How Multinationals Can Help Advance LGBT Inclusion Around the World
16/09/2019
Kelly Bowden/Getty Images As the rainbow flags came down in New York City after the WorldPride and Stonewall 50 celebrations, and as flags go up for pride events in other parts of the world, it’s worth asking: where do we stand on global LGBT rights? This year has offered a mixed bag. More jurisdictions, including […]
Research: Where a Founder Is from Affects How They Structure Their Company
12/09/2019
George Diebold/Getty Images Where a person is born can shape the languages they speak, their life expectancy, and even how much they talk with their hands or smile. But how does it affect how they build a company? Does someone from South Africa have an entirely different approach than someone from Russia? It turns out […]
A Lack of Sponsorship Is Keeping Women from Advancing into Leadership
07/09/2019
ferrantraite/Getty Images Too few women are reaching the top of their organizations, and a big reason is that they are not getting the high-stakes assignments that are prerequisite for a shot at the C-suite. Often, this is due to a lack of powerful sponsors demanding and ensuring that they get these stepping-stone jobs. Ensuring that […]
181 Top CEOs Have Realized Companies Need a Purpose Beyond Profit
30/08/2019
Tim Robberts/Getty Images On August 19 the Business Roundtable issued an open letter titled “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.” One of the preeminent business lobbies in the United States, the Business Roundtable (BR) includes the CEOs of leading U.S. companies from Apple to Walmart. Sandwiched between the spare title and 181 signatures was a one-page […]
Are Your Company’s Strengths Really Weaknesses?
27/08/2019
MediaProduction/Getty Images Look at a map of the world drawn upside down. It’s a good way to challenge your assumptions about the way the world is — especially which continents and oceans are bigger and which are smaller. Looking at the business world upside down has a similar effect: It challenges your assumptions about company […]
CEOs Say They Don’t Just Work for Shareholders. Do They Mean It?
23/08/2019
Steven Peutzer/Getty Images The Business Roundtable’s statement on corporate purpose issued earlier this week is noteworthy both for its endorsement of inclusive prosperity as an ideal and for its rejection of maximizing shareholder returns as the sole corporate objective. Although echoing what many other groups and commentators have long been saying, the BRT’s about-face on […]
The Trust Crisis
09/08/2019
Businesses put an awful lot of effort into meeting the diverse needs of their stakeholders — customers, investors, employees, and society at large. But they’re not paying enough attention to one ingredient that’s crucial to productive relationships with those stakeholders: trust. Trust, as defined by organizational scholars, is our willingness to be vulnerable to the […]
5 Steps for Tying Executive Compensation to Sustainability
05/08/2019
Thomas Jackson/Getty Images The final link in the chain of improving corporate accountability for sustainability is to tie improvements to pay. In our last article, we explained that companies should use incentives to motivate executives to tap big strategic opportunities related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. Now we want to describe how these […]
When Should You Fire Your Child from the Family Business?
31/07/2019
Tetra Images/Getty Images For years Charles dreamed of working side by side with his son, James, in the family business, a thriving manufacturing company that his father had founded and he had grown. Since James joined the business straight out of college, both men assumed he would eventually take over. But things hadn’t turned out […]
When Passion Leads to Burnout
27/07/2019
ito akihiro/Getty Images You’ve no doubt heard the well-worn advice that “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s a nice idea but a total myth. When we equate work we love with “not really working,” it propagates a belief that if we love it so much, we […]
Stop Panicking About Corporate Short-Termism
20/07/2019
Juj Winn/Getty Images Contrary to some claims in popular culture, boards and c-suites are not intrinsically heartless and societally myopic. While the rules of the capitalist road surely could do with some updates, almost all of the corporate decision makers my firm has dealt with are responsible, not reckless. This is particularly true when it […]
Confronting overconfidence in talent strategy, management, and development | McKinsey
18/07/2019
Many leaders we encounter insist that their talent- and people-development strategies are sound—and that their organizations are good at implementing them. Is this confidence warranted, and are companies living up to their leaders’ assertions? Could these leaders be succumbing to the same optimism bias that motivates three out of four people to imagine that they […]
Digital strategy leaders accelerate their pace and magnitude
16/07/2019
Most executives we know have a powerful, intuitive feel for the rhythm of their businesses. They know how hard and fast to pull strategic levers, move their organization, and drive execution to achieve their objectives. Or at least they did. Digitization has intensified the rhythm of competition in many industries, leaving executives adrift, with information-gathering […]
Six governing considerations to modernize marketing
14/07/2019
Most chief marketing officers (CMOs) understand that the utilization of data, analyses, and algorithms to personalize marketing drives value. Concept tests are becoming more efficient, customer approaches are being accelerated, and revenues are quadrupling in certain channels. All the evidence suggests that marketing functions should invest in, collect, and analyze available data to support their […]
6 Causes of Burnout, and How to Avoid Them
13/07/2019
Bryan Mullennix/Getty Images A fog of burnout surrounds you: You’re perpetually exhausted, annoyed, and feeling unaccomplished and unappreciated. Everything in you wants to quit your job. But is that the best choice? Ultimately only you can know what is right in your situation. But there is research that can help you determine whether you can […]
How to Be Resilient in the Face of Harsh Criticism
12/07/2019
Richard Drury/Getty Images Most of us have been “feedsmacked” at some point in our life. In the midst of a meeting, an innocent walk down the hallway, or a performance review, someone delivers a verbal wallop that rocks our psychological footing. We looked at 445 such incidents when we conducted an online survey asking people […]
Research: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills
12/07/2019
Alex and Laila/Getty Images For the first time in history, a major political party in the United States has several women who have declared their candidacy to be their party’s presidential nominee. But TV pundits have been questioning whether, despite the progress indicated by the huge influx of women elected into Congress last fall, the […]
5 ways CEOs can renew their businesses for the digital age
12/07/2019
But as a tsunami of digital disruption hits every industry, many business leaders are being capsized. They are seeing the iceberg, but doing nothing about it. FoundersLane, the corporate venture builder, has performed in-depth research into what works best around the world – and here, as a result, are five steps CEOs can take to […]
5 Ways to Foster a Global Mindset in Your Company
11/07/2019
Ismail Sadiron/EyeEm/Getty Images Many companies talk about “going global,” but becoming a strong global brand isn’t just about expanding to international markets. It’s also about succeeding in those markets and avoiding cross-cultural mishaps. While business leaders tend to focus on capturing as much foreign market share as possible — by adding new languages, launching more […]
5 Signs That Your Family Business Might Have an Ethics Problem
25/06/2019
Sunny/Getty Images When he was attending his grandfather’s funeral, Robert Pasin, the CEO of Radio Flyer, was overwhelmed by the outpouring of affection and respect for the family patriarch, who had originally founded the third generation family business, which manufactures toys. “All these people who worked in the factory, all these suppliers, they told me […]
The journey to an agile organization
24/06/2019
Agility is catching fire, and there is growing recognition of its transformational benefits. But moving to an agile operating model is tough, especially for established companies. There are several paths to agility and many different starting points, yet successful agile transformations all share the common elements described in this paper. Agile organizations are different. Traditional […]
Why We Need to Rethink “Employer Brand”
23/06/2019
Daniel Day/Getty Images Today, a strong employer brand is seen as a critical way to attract, engage, and retain the best people. At a time when top talent is highly mobile, those are certainly laudable goals. But is building a special, separate employer brand the way to achieve them? No. The problem with most employer branding is […]
Why Self-Awareness Isn’t Doing More to Help Women’s Careers
18/06/2019
Mads Perch/Getty Images Self-awareness is the foundational leadership skill of the 21st century. Leaders who know who they are, and how they’re seen by others, are more effective, confident, respected, and promotable. When I speak to business leaders about our five-plus year research program on self-awareness, one of the most common questions I get is […]
Corporations must help shape a better world – or risk being left behind
14/06/2019
The duty to pursue profit as a CEO is a duty of temporal order, while the pursuit of long-term advantage involves preserving and enhancing the competitive advantage over time, protecting the reputation and lifespan of the enterprise, and considering not just interests of the shareholders, but those of key stakeholders. Legal and societal pressures on […]
Why You Should Create a “Shadow Board” of Younger Employees
13/06/2019
Paolo Farinella/Getty Images A lot of companies struggle with two apparently unrelated problems: disengaged younger workers and a weak response to changing market conditions. A few companies have tackled both problems at the same time by creating a “shadow board” — a group of non-executive employees that works with senior executives on strategic initiatives. The […]
Making Empathy Central to Your Company Culture
11/06/2019
RF Pictures/Getty Images In Tim Cook’s 2017 MIT commencement address, he warned graduates, “People will try to convince you that you should keep empathy out of your career. Don’t accept this false premise.” The Apple CEO is not alone in recognizing and emphasizing the importance of empathy — the ability to share and understand others’ […]
New Zealand has unveiled its first ‘well-being’ budget
10/06/2019
Based on the idea that gauging the long-term impact of policies on the quality of people’s lives is better than focusing on short-term output measures, the initiative has five priorities for 2019: aiding the transition to a sustainable and low-emissions economy, supporting a thriving nation in the digital age, lifting Māori and Pacific incomes, skills […]
Why People Hide Their Disabilities at Work
06/06/2019
Ilka & Franz/Getty Images Work is stressful. If you’re hiding a disability, the daily grind of early mornings, deadlines, and office politics is compounded into a far heavier burden. You live in fear of being discovered. You work overtime to mask your authentic self. But you aren’t alone. In the Center for Talent Innovation’s “Disabilities […]
Engagement Around the World, Charted
06/06/2019
Keeping employees engaged is a concern for companies around the world. We tend to think only about engagement in our own organizations. But new findings from ADP Research Institute, which makes and shares data-based discoveries about all aspects of the world of work, reveal stark differences in engagement between countries, industries, and job types. The […]
How Leaders Around the World Build Trust Across Cultures
06/06/2019
John M Lund Photography Inc/Getty Images Many managerial positions require frequent communication with employees from around the world, but building trust across cultures can be difficult. Still, it is vitally important; when individuals trust one another, they can work together effectively regardless of cultural differences. But how do you build this cross-cultural trust? In focus […]
5 Ways to Help Your Team Be Open to Change
17/05/2019
RapidEye/Getty Images More than 90% of CEOs believe their companies will change more in the next five years than they did in the last five. Having a workforce that’s ready and able to harness that change will make the difference between success and failure. Leaders at every level need to embrace and model how to […]
Most mental-health problems are untreated. Trained laypeople can help…
19/04/2019
IN ANY GIVEN year one person in six is afflicted by a mental illness. Most cases involve mild-to-moderate depression or anxiety. Some sufferers recover on their own. For many, however, the condition is left untreated and may become chronic or severe. In the past social stigma meant that people kept their pain to themselves. The […]
How to Help Your Team with Burnout When You’re Burned Out Yourself
18/04/2019
FangXiaNuo/Getty Images As a manager, you want to do right by your employees and support them through intense work periods so they don’t get burned out. But this can be a challenge when you’re feeling overly stressed yourself. How can you take care of yourself so that you have the time and energy to support […]
You Don’t Have to Be CEO to Be a Visionary Leader
16/04/2019
Grant Faint/Getty Images Creating a unifying vision for an organization is a fundamental skill for leaders. A simple, bold, inspirational vision can feel almost magical: it brings people throughout the company together around a common goal and provides a focal point for developing strategies to achieve a better future. Unfortunately, however, building a vision has […]
How to Work for a Boss Who Has Unrealistic Expectations
15/04/2019
Paul Taylor/Getty Images Whether your manager is a front-line supervisor or the CEO, every leader occasionally has unrealistic expectations. But some bosses are unrealistic most of the time. They don’t take into account the facts on the ground, or they habitually refer to their past experiences at other companies rather than to the people and […]
What happiness can teach us about how we measure human development
14/04/2019
Last week I had the opportunity to visit Bhutan for the first time, a trip I’ve been looking forward to for many years. The country’s quest to buck the global trend of measuring human development success by Gross Development Product (GDP) and going instead with Gross National Happiness (GNH) has long intrigued me. Yale University […]
Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?
11/04/2019
There are three popular explanations for the clear under-representation of women in management, namely: (1) they are not capable; (2) they are not interested; (3) they are both interested and capable but unable to break the glass-ceiling: an invisible career barrier, based on prejudiced stereotypes, that prevents women from accessing the ranks of power. Conservatives […]
5 Ways to Help Your Team Be Open to Change
09/04/2019
RapidEye/Getty Images More than 90% of CEOs believe their companies will change more in the next five years than they did in the last five. Having a workforce that’s ready and able to harness that change will make the difference between success and failure. Leaders at every level need to embrace and model how to […]
Is women’s progress stalling at your company? Here’s how to get it moving again
29/03/2019
So organizations believe D&I is critical to achieving financial goals, and, on average 80% of leaders say they are committed to the D&I agenda overall. It therefore follows that leaders looking to implement a successful D&I agenda understand that it’s about people and business strategy. Unfortunately, commitment and passion for change is not enough to […]
How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation
23/03/2019
In a recent strategy meeting we attended with the leaders of a Fortune-500 company, the word “culture” came up 27 times in 90 minutes. Business leaders believe a strong organizational culture is critical to success, yet culture tends to feel like some magic force that few know how to control. So most executives manage it […]
Meet the 2019 Class of Young Global Leaders
19/03/2019
The Forum of Young Global Leaders, the World Economic Forum’s foundation for remarkable leaders under 40, was founded to fuel new models of leadership. Every year, our organization seeks out changemakers with the grit, foresight and potential to improve the state of the world. We look for individuals who reflect global diversity, innovate to promote […]
Easy Stretches to Do Each Morning
07/03/2019
Starting your morning on the right foot can make a difference to your entire day, and what better way to get this done is to stretch and breathe properly. Stretching in the morning must be done when your body is already warm, say after your morning exercise routine. This way, your muscles will not be […]
You’ve Committed to Increasing Gender Diversity on Your Board. Here’s How to Make it Happen…
06/03/2019
Jamie Jones/Getty Images After years of asking corporate directors about the importance of diversity in the boardroom, we’ve got some good news: the vast majority see value in including more women and minorities. Nearly 95% of directors agree that diversity brings unique perspectives to the boardroom, while 84% believe it enhances board performance, according to […]
Research: When Small Teams Are Better Than Big Ones
04/03/2019
Michael Blann/Getty Images The “discovery of the 21st century” was awarded the Nobel prize two years after it was made. In 2015, the Laser Interferometre Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project finally detected what it was built to: gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of space and time—caused by the collision of two black holes. Among many things, […]
The Dalai Lama on Why Leaders Should Be Mindful, Selfless, and Compassionate
02/03/2019
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images Over the past nearly 60 years, I have engaged with many leaders of governments, companies, and other organizations, and I have observed how our societies have developed and changed. I am happy to share some of my observations in case others may benefit from what I have learned. Leaders, whatever field they […]
How to Make Sure a New Hire Feels Included from Day One
28/02/2019
Beth was promoted to senior vice president at a Fortune 500 company. In addition to her existing responsibilities, she was given two new groups to manage. Overnight, her team doubled in size. Beth needed to hire senior executives to help manage her burgeoning division. Within five months, she had her senior management team in place: […]
Feeling Anxious? Here’s How That Can Help..
27/02/2019
Recently, I was at an event with an actor. Together, we were about to walk onstage to address a large group of people about a project we were collaborating on. Backstage, I turned to the actor. “I’m anxious,” I said to the actor. She looked as cool as a cucumber. “Put another way,” she whispered, […]
Popular Exercises That Can Be Dangerous for You and How to Replace Them
21/02/2019
Some exercises can cause more damage than progress for your health, creating issues like unnecessary tension in the neck, spine, and shoulders or too much stress on your joints. There are also exercises that are so ineffective, you’ll just be wasting your time doing them. The good news is that there’s a suitable replacement option for each of them. 1. Behind the […]
The Best Leaders Aren’t Afraid to Ask for Help
20/02/2019
MECKY/Getty Images I think of myself as strong. I see myself as someone who can manage a lot of stress. Who can get a tremendous amount accomplished in a day. Who can work long hours and pull through in clutch moments. Who doesn’t give up in the face of problems, but works tirelessly until they […]
Time for Happiness
20/02/2019
Adam (real story, fake name) was a good employee who was given a plum project he believed could get him a promotion and a raise. Taking it seemed like the proverbial no-brainer: Work hard, nail the assignment, get more pay. He knew he’d have to put in long days and some hours on weekends, which […]
The case for a virtual Chief Information Security Officer
19/02/2019
Organisations today are facing a dangerous combination of mounting cybersecurity threat and a lack of in-house expertise to meet the challenge. Smaller firms have typically allocated responsibility for information security to a member of the operations or financial team and given IT the responsibility for technical cyber security. In most cases these responsibilities are secondary […]
What PwC Learned from Its Policy of Flexible Work for Everyone
19/02/2019
Vicki Jauron, Babylon and Beyond Photography/Getty Images Every Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time, I join a video conference call with leadership colleagues from across the country. I’m on the West Coast, so these meetings are always early for me. When I started joining them more than 10 years ago, I was up early to […]
The 3 Elements of Trust
18/02/2019
Ben Welsh/Getty Images As a leader, you want the people in your organization to trust you. And with good reason. In our coaching with leaders, we often see that trust is a leading indicator of whether others evaluate them positively or negatively. But creating that trust or, perhaps more importantly, reestablishing it when you’ve lost […]
To Improve Your Team, First Work on Yourself
07/02/2019
Howard George/Getty Images. A colleague and I were recently meeting with a CEO and his leadership team, observing them as they discussed how to improve their annual planning process. As the team of ten explored their current process, the conversation got heated. The team had been talking for 45 minutes, but it wasn’t clear who […]
We should take humour in the workplace more seriously
05/02/2019
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing, and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator says “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s […]
Loneliness is a serious public-health problem – All the lonely people
27/01/2019
LONDON, says Tony Dennis, a 62-year-old security guard, is a city of “sociable loners”. Residents want to get to know each other but have few ways to do so. Tonight, however, is different. Mr Dennis and a few dozen other locals are jousting at a monthly quiz put on by the Cares Family, a charity […]
Lessons from Leaders: Distell Commercial Director Joseph Walsh, Filmed Interview Part 1
25/01/2019
Part of our ‘Signium Speaks’ interview series where we reveal insights and lessons learnt by successful Leaders… Joseph Walsh is Commercial Director UK & Ireland for Distell International, the leading producer and marketer of wines, spirits, ciders and RTD’s most of which are produced in South Africa and sold in more than 100 countries. With […]
5 rules for making employers and employees trust each other again
19/01/2019
The debate about the future of work has largely focused on jobs – what they will look like, the decline of well-paid jobs for lower skilled workers, and how jobs will be impacted by AI and automation. However, there is a bigger conversation that is worth having: it’s about the changing relationship between employer and […]
How to Manage an Employee Who’s Having a Personal Crisis
18/01/2019
Source: How to Manage an Employee Who’s Having a Personal Crisis
Why We’re Drawn to Leaders Who Emphasize the Negative
18/01/2019
Darren_Sutherland/Getty Images There’s a tendency to assume that we want our leaders to be encouraging, magnanimous, and optimistic. But in the last decade, across borders and sectors, we’ve been seeing an increasing number of leaders better known for a style that is more vitriolic, punitive, and negative. This disconnect led me to wonder how positive […]
A Simple Way to Get Your Leadership Team Aligned on Strategy
17/01/2019
Tim Robberts/Getty Images Imagine you call a leadership team meeting to gauge how important the team feels digital transformation is to the company. Would anyone dare say it is not a strategic imperative, even if they privately thought it wasn’t? The meeting ends with seemingly clear agreement that digital transformation is mission critical. But what […]
How to Embrace Change Using Emotional Intelligence
13/01/2019
Fuse/Getty Images Have you ever reacted to organizational change by rolling your eyes and quietly saying to yourself, “Here we go again”? Or by not so quietly telling others, “Haven’t we tried this before?”? Changes at work can be emotionally intense, sparking confusion, fear, anxiety, frustration, and helplessness. Experts have even said that the experience of […]
5 ways for business leaders to win in the 2020s
12/01/2019
The winners in business have shifted markedly in the last decade. When the 2010s began, the world’s top 10 public companies by market capitalization were based in five countries; only two of them were in the tech sector, and none was worth more than $400 billion. Today, all of the top 10 are in the […]
The Most Common Type of Incompetent Leader
11/01/2019
Jakub Domerecki/EyeEm/Getty Images A young friend recently remarked that the worst boss he ever had would provide him with feedback that always consisted of “You’re doing a great job.” But they both knew it wasn’t true — the organization was in disarray, turnover was excessive, and customers were not happy. My friend was giving it […]
7 steps to becoming a ‘CEO Academy’
10/01/2019
Any discussion of CEO succession planning has to start with a single fact: most companies do a good job of developing internal candidates. According to one recent analysis, more than eight in 10 executives who are appointed to the top job came from within the organization. Internally appointed CEOs tend to stay in the role […]
Businesses can lead a revolution in disability inclusion
20/12/2018
History has shown that when business leads by example (e.g. the green movement) – taking decisive steps and agreeing to be held accountable for their actions and achievements – society follows and real positive social change happens worldwide. That’s why last year we launched #valuable – a global call to action for businesses and brands […]
Could robot leaders do better than our current politicians?
13/12/2018
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is expected to wreak havoc on labour markets, with AI and robots replacing various white-collar jobs. One job category largely excluded from scientific reports is that of government leaders, despite being one of the most critiqued, scrutinized and ridiculed jobs of all. However, commentators from countries as diverse as India, the […]
When CEOs Should Speak Up on Polarizing Issues
09/12/2018
fotog/Getty Images CEO activism, the growing trend of top executives speaking out on sensitive social and political issues, has been labeled the “new normal.” But behind the scenes, executives do not feel in control. They are struggling to anticipate and respond to intensifying pressure from the public, investors, and — above all — their employees. […]
Here’s how to find a job you really love
07/12/2018
Often millennials receive career advice along the lines of “follow your passion”. Although it sounds great, it is hard to put into practice. One can’t help but notice the dissonance between the current emphasis on passion at work, and the lack of avenues to build meaningful careers. The term “follow your passion” has increased nine-fold […]
Compassionate Business Leadership Creates A Competitive Edge
04/12/2018
Getty royalty free image Articles and keynotes about the importance of empathy and compassion are common in the business world these days. Those qualities are universally acknowledged to be essential in building a winning organizational culture. However, you will never see compassionate leadership in popular lists of the leadership styles one can aspire to. Why […]
Building Leaders Without Silos
02/12/2018
Digital transformation isn’t only disrupting established business models. It’s disrupting time-honoured career paths. Once, an ambitious professional could take a straightforward path to build their experience and reputation in an area of business. The road from the cubicle to the corner office, and beyond, was mapped out for them. However, traditional corporate silos, and the […]
When Companies Should Invest in Training Their Employees — and When They Shouldn’t
30/11/2018
Executive Summary According to one industry report, U.S. companies spent over $90 billion dollars on training and development activities in 2017, a year-over-year increase of 32.5 %. While many experts emphasize the importance of employee development — critics point to a painful lack of results from these investments. Ultimately, there is truth in both perspectives. […]
Research: When Getting Fired Is Good for Your Career
28/11/2018
Blaise Hayward/Getty Images Most leaders are, deep down, afraid of failure. But our 10-year CEO Genome study of over 2,600 leaders showed almost half (45%) suffered at least one major career blow-up — like getting fired, messing up a major deal, or blowing an acquisition. Despite that, 78% of these executives eventually made it to the […]
How To Spur Motivation And Fight Complacency As A Business Leader
26/11/2018
We all know that employee engagement matters. In fact, a 2013 Gallup study found a direct correlation between engagement and business outcomes. And it’s common to feel a sense of powerlessness about these under performing employees. Talent is hard to come by, and some days it’s a good thing to simply maintain a full complement of […]
4 Ways to Pressure-Test Strategic Decisions, Inspired by the U.S. Military
15/11/2018
Every leader wants to avoid major strategic mistakes, but, in a complex world, it’s hard to anticipate all the forces that might impact your goal. It’s vital to find weaknesses in your strategies before you implement them — and developing a rigorous process to do so. The ability to poke holes in one’s own strategies […]