One of the most popular quotes that you will hear on the subject of organizational culture is credited to Peter Drucker, the doyen of management who rightly said and I quote “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. To improve your approaches to gaining the commitment and buy-in of your team into the culture that you want, enroll for our micro-learning course at Effective Leadership
One of the skills that sets people apart in their organizations is their ability to speak confidently in public. To learn more about improving your presentation and public speaking skills, enroll in our micro-learning course at Present Like a Star .
A new field has emerged in management known as positive organizational studies which focuses on fostering organizations where people flourish, thrive, and support the common good. It is gaining interest not only among scholars but also among organizational leaders who want better and more sustainable organizations. We can only achieve this if we go back to the roots – our beliefs and actions regarding the pursuit of success. To learn more about success, and what it takes to achieve sustainable s...
As a service organization, you should try everything you can to prevent customers from becoming angry and lashing out at your employees and other customers. You can achieve this by applying the 6 steps of the fantastic service equation and incorporating them into your everyday service protocols. To learn more about improving the quality-of-service delivery, enroll for our micro-learning course at Customer Service ....
Our goal for today is to get you to improve your ability to solve problems, overcome challenges and take advantage of opportunities more creatively, using the powerful tool of brainstorming. To achieve this, I will introduce a theoretical framework that explains effective brainstorming, share 8 rules for effective brainstorming and introduce three of the most common approaches to brainstorming. To learn more about conducting appraisals effectively, enroll for our micro-learning course at Creativ...
When performance appraisals are conducted improperly, employees are afraid, cynical, and disinterested in the appraisal process, and tend to underperform. However, when performance appraisals are done properly, employees are inspired, motivated, and engaged to not only participate in the appraisals but to improve their performance and results. To learn more about conducting appraisals effectively, enroll for our micro-learning course at Conducting Effective Appraisals...
The concept of “management by meetings” is very well enshrined in organizational life today and will continue to play a prominent role in organizational culture going forward, especially as more organizations transition to remote and hybrid workplaces. The truth is that most executives and managers now spend up to 70% of their day in meetings, and these meetings must be managed effectively so that the time spent in them is worth it. To learn more about improving your meetings, enroll for our mic...
Research in the field of management and our experience over the years shows a clear relationship between the quality of goal setting and implementation and the success of any individual, team or organization. To learn more about goal setting, enroll for our micro-learning course at Effective Goal Setting
A selection interview is a communication task that requires you to plan, prepare and practice. You cannot go into an interview hoping to just “wing it”. You must do better, and taking time to apply the 3Ps of planning, practice and preparation enhances your chances of success.
If scientific evidence shows that the level of success that organizations achieve depends on the quality of leadership in the organization, then organizations that are intent on achieving sustainable success must pay attention to measuring and evaluating the quality of leadership on an on-going basis.
Every organization desires the same thing: that it can galvanize all its resources together – physical, human, financial, technological and others to achieve its overall organizational goals and create value for its stakeholders on a sustainable basis.
In this increasingly Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world, one skill that is top of mind for organizations and leaders are the skills for CREATIVITY and INOVATION - people working collaboratively to clarify challenges/problems/opportunities, identify options, develop solutions, and implement these solutions to create value for themselves and society.
Selling skills consist of the things you need to do to show people the unique value that your products and services offer and influence them to purchase them. Selling skills are important for survival in all human endeavours, but many people are afraid of selling, and will try everything to avoid a job that requires them to sell.
In our increasingly Volatile Uncertain Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world and workplace, line manager capability stands out as a critical success factor for any organization seeking to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Our managers need to be AGILE to add value to our organizations.
One challenge that some people have in the workplace is getting along others. Unfortunately, while we may want to dismiss the importance of good relationships, studies have demonstrated that good relationships with coworkers, supervisors and subordinates is a predictor of personal and organizational success.
Emotional Intelligence, that is how you manage yourself and others around you contributes more significantly to your success than your cognitive intelligence that measures just your intellectual ability. In fact, if you have read all the books in the world and are yet unable to manage yourself and others around you, all that “booksmarts” will not be very valuable.
One of the essential skills that intrapreneurs have is their ability to take ownership. The first thing every individual who is a member of a team or organization and intends to work with others to achieve results needs to do is to fall in line and take ownership.
There is nothing more delightful than having people around you who want to be better, who are hungry and desirous of improving themselves, adding value to the work that they do and pushing themselves to do more.
One of the biggest impediments to the success of our organizations is the dearth of business and financial acumen among employees and managers. When people work for an organization and do not understand the strategy of the organization, its business model, how it makes money, and how its financial resources are managed, such people struggle to add value to the organization.
From watching too many gangster movies and listening to rap jams from the 1990s, I picked up the expression “Never get high on your own supply”. A code of conduct for drug dealers that proposes that you shouldn’t use the drugs that you are meant to be selling, so that you avoid the temptation of getting addicted, stealing from the mob, and ending up getting a dose of mob justice as was frequently depicted in the movies and music videos.
There is a lot of evidence in both research and practice that one of the biggest impediments to successful implementation of an organization’s strategy is the lack of commitment and buy-in of employees across all levels and parts of the organization. An evidence-based approach to increasing the buy-in and commitment of employees is to use a 360-degree approach to strategic planning and development.
A colleague of mine told me many years ago that every morning she would wait by the window facing the driveway to our office to see the expression on my face as I came out of my car to determine whether it was going to be a happy day or a sad one. A classic example of an “enigmatic” boss (putting it nicely), and an employee whose happiness had been mortgaged.
In the last fifteen years, I have been actively involved in helping organizations craft and implement their business strategies. That journey has exposed me to some of the largest companies and government agencies, given me a chance to compete against some of the Big 4 Consulting firms and also to collaborate with some of them in this regard.
Preparing leaders for the future is certainly the most important goal for any serious-thinking organization or society. The whole purpose of the education that you give your children for example is to prepare them for independent life, so that they can lead themselves and others around them.
When you interact with many organizational leaders, they are very cynical about the investments that organizations make in training their employees. Unfortunately, the data supports their cynicism: most training does not translate to action and changes in the organization.
We pay a lot more attention to coming up with bright ideas and new strategies than we do on ensuring that they are implemented and create the results that we desire. Organizations that really succeed are not those who have the biggest dreams, they are the ones that have the best execution.
Right-thinking businesses are in pursuit of one thing only: achieving sustainable competitive advantage. This requires them to have a more balanced approach to setting priorities and pursuing goals. Some of the most successful companies in the world have adopted the Balanced Score card as their framework for strategy development, strategy implementation and performance management.
I have always believed that the biggest problem plaguing our society and our organizations is the preponderance of square pegs in round holes – people doing jobs that they are not aligned with.
Presentation and public speaking skills are the most sought-after skills in the workplace today. Thankfully, these skills can be learned with the right motivation, tools, training, and support.
Idea generation is an important step of the creative-problem solving and innovation process that teams and organizations use to drive strategy and transformation. However, without a proper understanding of the foundational principles of ideation, your best efforts at idea generation may not yield the results you desire.
