Category: Assessment

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[Coaching Tips] “This Never Happens to Me”

Good business coaches use of host of tools and skills working with executives and teams: how they use those tools, and the robustness and effectiveness of the tools themselves is what separates coaches that are great and highly effective from those that are ho-hum and well, pretty ordinary.

One of those skills is the ability to see patterns of behavior where most might miss the connection between the dots, and to be able to use that insight to inform a host of suggested alternative approaches with a client.… Read the rest

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[Best Advice I Ever Got] “Good Execution Beats a Bad Idea”

Fortune Magazine’s November 23, 2009 issue features Willbur Ross in the “Best Advice I Ever Got” section. It’s well worth the quick read. My favorite line: “The biggest risk is the question you forgot to ask because the danger is always something you don’t know.”

Ross speaks to two blind spots possessed by many organizations and their leaders – even mine as a solo practitioner consulting firm.… Read the rest

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[Building Great Companies] 5 Talent / Location Factors Founders Should Consider

There are a lot of ways to build a company – some by  accident, some products of history, and some by poorly conceived thinking (see Charlotte, North Carolina – who would think Charlotte would become a world banking headquarters?). An obvious goal is to base your business where it’s got good access to customers, talent, transportation or perhaps capital: do none well and you suck up time in travel, recruiting, and moving people that could be otherwise spent toward serving customers and making great products.… Read the rest

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[Forks in the Career Road] An Early Thanksgiving

I had lunch with Littler Mendelson’s Lindbergh Porter today, an early Thanksgiving of sorts.

Seeing him reminded me that career choices and life opportuniities come to us in all sorts of ways and at times both convenient and awkward. Each choice you make has some consequence, both foreseen and unknown.

Lindbergh and I had worked together in the ’90’s when I was his client as an SVP of Human Resources.… Read the rest

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[Coaching Tips] Why and How You Should Say “No” – Even to Your Boss

Sometimes saying “no” is tough, even when there are all sorts of good reasons to do so. But if you are always saying “yes” to things you can’t or won’t be able to do, you’re setting yourself up for failure or dodgy performance downstream.

There are three areas where it makes sense for you to say no; 1) things that you should not do; 2) things that you can’t do;  and 3) things that you prefer not to do.… Read the rest