Blog Archives

From Generation to Generation: Keeping Your Family Business Alive and Well after You’ve Moved On

Do you have any idea how rare it is for family businesses to successfully pass the baton from generation to generation? Just making the transition from one CEO to another in a corporate environment is hard enough. For most family

Posted in Baby Boomers, CEO, Closely-held business, Familiy Constitution, Family Business, Fourth Generation, Retirement, Second Generation

Moving from “What’s the Matter?” to “What Really Matters?”

I attended a conference for healthcare professionals recently, and one of the speakers, the CEO of a prominent health system, left a real impression on me. The session focused on customer engagement and how best to enhance the patient experience.

Posted in CEO, Critical Thinking, Customer Engagement, employee engagement, Healthcare, Organizational Assessment, Patient Experience, Performance Improvement, Performance Issues

Putting the Horse Back in Front of the Cart with Leadership Succession

Why is it that so many leadership succession processes begin when that very business executive we need to replace announces he or she is going to retire? Isn’t that like having the horse in back riding alongside the driver rather

Posted in Baby Boomers, CEO, Leadership, Leadership Transition, Retirement, Retiring, Succession, Succession Management, Succession Planning Tagged with: ,

Seeking Clarity Instead of Taking it so Personally

Sometimes, it can be hard not to take someone’s comments personally. Let’s face it. It’s human nature to hear something, process that information quickly, and then make a snap judgment about what it really means. Unfortunately, not everything we hear

Posted in CEO, Coaching, Direct Reports, Executive Coaching, Leader, Uncategorized Tagged with: , , , , ,

Three Power Play Questions to Improve Any Customer Relationship

Among the many hats I wear at my firm, I am head of sales and Chief Rainmaker. That doesn’t mean that I enjoy sales though.    For many – myself included – that word “sales” has such a negative connotation

Posted in Chief Rainmaker, Coaching, Customer, Customer Relations, Customer Relationship Management, customer service, Executive Coaching, Ice Breaker, Questions, Sales, Value-Added Service

Six Surefire Ways to Recruit Top Talent

Have you ever noticed how we tend to do whatever we make important? There are probably lots of things on your mental To Do list that aren’t getting done. That may not be a bad thing. When it comes to

Posted in Change management, Hiring, Hiring Manager, HR, Interviewing, Interviews, Job Definition, New Hires, Recruit, Recruiting, Recruitment, Talent, Top Talent

Webinar on Best Practices for Designing Your Always, Ongoing Performance Management Process

How often have you heard a business leader complain when HR announces it’s time to complete annual performance reviews? People often think of performance management as that thing they have to do for HR at the end of the year

Posted in Conference, Feedback, HR, HR.com, Performance Management, Webinar, Workshop

Three Simple Steps to Declaring It – and Making It – Your Best Year Ever!

Happy New Year! Was 2013 a great year for you? Maybe not so much. Either way, are you ready to make 2014 your best year ever? As my good friend used to tell his four-year-old son, “It’s good to want.”

Posted in Commitment, Declaration, Implementation, Strategic Planning, success, Visioning

There are No Failures or Mistakes in Lessons Learned

For the longest time, I have strived for perfection in all that I do. That’s nice in concept. It isn’t very practical though and rarely produces any breakthrough results. I often end up taking too long to do things with

Posted in Breakthrough, Experiment, Failure, Lessons, Lessons Learned, Light Bulb, Mistake, Perfection, Thomas Edison

What a Performance Review Is – and What It Isn’t!

So what is performance? Performance is the results we get (the what) plus the behaviors that give us those results (the how). And why do we care about managing performance in organizations? It’s the only reliable way to assure our

Posted in Best Practices, employee engagement, Empowerment, HR, Human Resources, Leadership, Motivation, OD, Organization Development, Performance Assessment, Performance Management, Performance Review

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