Provoke Your People
If you want to achieve dramatic change in mindset and behavior, the fastest way is through provocation. By provocation, I mean deliberately evoking a visceral emotional response in others. There is nothing wrong with provocation if you do it right. It’s just that, as a leader, you ought to be provocative, but never a provocateur—the […]
Master the Matrix
While I sometimes hear CEOs complain about their lack of authority in a matrix organization, the most successful CEOs I know never do. They have all mastered the matrix, wield tremendous authority, and influence their own and the business’s advantage despite the ambiguities inherent to a matrix organization. If you are the CEO of a […]
Entrepreneurial Spirit of the Employed
A CEO client of mine has been asking his senior executives to be more “entrepreneurial” in their approach to the business, and he is certainly not the first one to do so.
Conversation with Danone Japan President Rodrigo Lima
On February 6th, I was pleased to speak onstage with Danone Japan President Rodrigo Lima. Below are my takeaways from the conversation.
Your Own Worst Enemy
Businesses can be their own worst enemies when business process supplants business thinking. The CEO of a large industrial American company in Japan told me of difficulties he faces in buying from a division of a large Japanese industrial company, not because of a lack of will to sell on their part, but rather unnecessary and […]
Be the Success Exception
Exceptions are “exceptional” by definition, and always exist no matter how rare. Just because research in organizational change shows a strong correlation between certain factors of success and failure does not make these axiomatic. My most successful clients make themselves the success exception, and you can too. In my experience, I have never seen any […]
Benevolent Dictatorship
Understanding the rationale for change alone when accountability is lacking is never enough. As leader, you will find yourself having to do the work of your staff in their stead. By accountability, I mean a leader ensures there are rewards for the right behaviors and good results, and penalties if there are not.
The Post-Distributor Age
We are living in a post-distributor age. Gone are the days of cajoling distributors in representing your products to customers—often poorly. The best businesses of today make it easy, comfortable, and fast for customers to buy actually what the want and how they want it. A friend of mine in Australia told me how he […]
Engagement Survey Use and Misuse
Leaders cannot engage people. People must engage themselves. All a leader can do is clear the way. Despite this, I often find overreaching conclusions from employee engagement surveys about leader’s capability that ought not be drawn, and decisions based on those conclusions that ought not be made. Engagement is either in the nature of a […]
Dramatic Strategic Change Manifesto
CEOs often ask me how best to lead dramatic, strategic change knowing full well the kind of concerns, resistance, and doubt that such change can evoke in some staff. Below I list some of what advise.
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