The Impact of Observation

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Having signed 52 baseball prospects who would later become major league players, Tony Lucadello is known as baseball’s greatest scout. His discoveries included Hall of Famers Ferguson Jenkins and Mike Schmidt.  The number of his signees making it to the big leagues is far greater than any other scout. And he accomplished this with a territory that included Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, rather than the good weather states of Florida, Texas or California where more opportunities to …

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Practicing Productive Conflict

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The quest for improved results dictates the need for change. It’s a journey filled with conflicting opinions that require resolution before commitment to the change can be secured.  In his latest book, “Thriving in Conflict,” Doug Johnston presents his definition of conflict as “a gap between what we expect and what we experience that leads to deeper understanding and better results.  The “deeper understanding” described in Doug’s definition is enabled by ensuring that the exchange of differing opinions remains …

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3 Team Characteristics That Drive Change

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Successfully tackling change initiatives is most often due to these team characteristics than it is to the types of individuals on the team: Accountability: Team members are comfortable taking risks; the team relies on its leader for support and on each other to act with urgency, commitment and thoroughness.  Clarity: Team roles, goals, and implementation plans are clearly documented and understood.  Impact: The project goals are personally important for each team member; they feel valued and believe that their efforts will make a difference for customers …

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Investing Your Irreplaceable Time

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With the holidays behind us, the routine of our life returns, bringing its heightened awareness of time. The digits we use to measure it will dominate once again, and since time is irreplaceable, the choices we make about investing it will dictate results. Before your routine reasserts its impact on your life, consider how you invested your valuable time last year. What did you accomplish? What worked, and what didn’t? Why is that? Did your accomplishments fulfill your purpose as a business? What unmet goals or objectives …

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What Are You Missing?

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There are 8 folks behind me in the checkout queue. All are talking on or looking at their phones. None are observing their surroundings or engaging with others nearby. In response to my conversational probe, I receive a grunt in reply…the person never looks up from his device. Our culture presents us with many distractions. When eyes are focused only on screens, we become oblivious to the people nearby us and to the places we share.  This failure …

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The Core of Emotional Intelligence

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Leaders with high emotional intelligence (EI) understand their own emotional state, enabling them to more accurately gauge the emotions of others, and to exercise empathy to better understand the genesis of these emotions. Employing empathy stimulates more thoughtful and productive dialogue, accelerating conflict resolution and producing more deliberate decisions. It’s the core ingredient of strong emotional intelligence. Leaders driving change appreciate the role that emotions play in motivating people to invest in change initiatives. Those who master the use of empathy, appreciate …

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3 Agreements to Resolve Conflicts

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Leaders driving change to improve results are continually resolving conflicts. They succeed by exercising empathy and securing three agreements:  Agreeing on reality. The current situation is accurately described and validated by facts.  Agreeing on goals. Realistic goals are specified and accepted, while acknowledging diversity in how they can be achieved.  Agreeing on vision. Having agreed on existing reality and attainable goals, commitment is secured when the successful outcome is envisioned and shared. These three agreements forge a bond of common purpose …

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Improving Leadership ROI

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Leaders are hired to be influencers and change agents who will improve performance. Their success hinges on motivating people to follow their lead, collaborating with them, rather than directing them, to change what is necessary to achieve their shared goals.   Because leaders are expected to drive change, and not just adapt to it, mastering leadership is increasingly about the continuous process of learning how to inspire and engage with their teams to produce productive change. Building on their natural talents, strengths and experience, leaders are …

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Prevailing in the Customer-Driven Market

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Today’s market is more customer-driven than ever before. Everyone and everything is connected, everywhere and all the time.  Companies with ready access to formidable technology or “big data” believe that this gives them an advantage, but in reality, high connectivity makes this access available to many. Technical advantage is not long sustainable, and the bulk of generated data is often produced by looking inward at the business, i.e. product margins, run rates, etc., rather than by looking outward …

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3 Ways to Launch Productive Change

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In today’s increasingly flat, networked and collaborative organizations, leaders seeking to drive productive change actively engage with their teams to make something better that improves performance, strengthens competitive advantage and creates strategic value.  Most teams want to do meaningful work, to make a difference beyond their functional responsibilities; but they need their leaders to provide direction and grounds to act on this aspiration. Their leaders perceive change initiatives as opportunities to produce positive outcomes while enabling them to practice and refine their relational, communicative, interpretive, and affective skills. So all …

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