There is nothing more immobilizing than hanging on to knowledge whose time has expired
I believe in ghosts. Not only do I believe in ghosts, I've seen how they haunt workers, teams, departments and entire organizations. And nowhere are these workplace ghosts more insidious than in the area of collaboration. What I'm calling "ghosts" are out-dated attitudes and behaviours about collaborative knowledge sharing that still haunt corporate halls and…
The way to focus people on the organization's optimal future is to get them to pay attention to their own insights
Don't you just hate dealing with people who fight against every plan for organizational change? You know the type: They're disruptive, set in their ways, and highly resistant to change, even when it is obviously in the best interest of the business. Well guess what? Research suggests that those trouble-making, inflexible, change resistors are ...…
Building and sustaining organizational excellence requires exceptional people dedicated to the task
A blog from a couple of years back by marketing guru and all-round provocative thinker Seth Godin entitled The fruitless search for extraordinary people willing to take ordinary jobs took me back to a boardroom conversation about executive pay. Every company has a ‘compensation philosophy’ that it uses to guide how it sets the pay…
People believe what they see, not what they hear
Of course I'm not talking about you. You may be a respected professional whose expertise speaks for itself. Your body language is a minor consideration. Or is it? Here's an email I recently received from an engineer: 'The Project Manager introduced a new consultant. The new guy smiled and shook hands with everybody, but it…
Encouraging everyone to look at what they’re doing through a mission lens can help your entire organization
I often find inspiration for my column from something I’ve read or heard. This month’s column was inspired by a podcast with Tobi Lütke, co-founder and CEO of Shopify. Shopify has been on a tear lately, overtaking even RBC to become Canada’s most valuable company. As a very small shareholder, I couldn’t be happier for…
The worst thing an organisation can do is to reward pathological behaviour
One of my bosses, Janet, was clever, hardworking and had an amazing eye for detail. She had high standards: if you e-mailed with a question at 10 p.m., she replied by 10.05. She worked hard, delivered on time, hated mistakes and expected the same from her team. She was driving us mad. We had been…
Calling it ’knowledge philanthropy’ rather than ‘pro bono’ makes me feel like I am giving, rather than giving something away
As an entrepreneur I get a lot of requests to give away expertise ‘for a good cause’. Many times I have to say no. However, I have started to intentionally incorporated knowledge philanthropy into my lifestyle portfolio (not my business portfolio). Here are some of the lessons I learned around how I say ‘YES!’ to…
It takes ongoing teamwork to produce innovative, cost effective and targeted products and services
Most leaders agree that effective collaboration is more important than ever. In a "do-more-with-less" reality, it takes ongoing teamwork to produce innovative, cost effective and targeted products and services. In fact, a company's very survival may depend on how well it can combine the potential of its people and the quality of the information they…
How do you deal with stress?
"Every day is a new day." At no time in recent memory has this phrase been more poignant. The situation has gone from one of sudden, unexpected crisis to that of chronic, daily stress. It is emotionally and psychologically exhausting. In the workplace, the pressure to make good decisions and produce good results has never…
The good news is strategic thinking can be nurtured
I once started working with a leader who suddenly found herself on the executive team. A corporate restructuring resulted in skipping a level and now she is sitting around the table asking, ‘am I strategic enough to do this job?’ Her question is not unique. Twenty years of developing leaders has taught me there are…
Avoid these seven deadly sins and you’ll be sure to improve the quality of your hires while at the same time providing a return on your investment
We’ve all been there: you have to fill a position, and it needed to be done yesterday. Any warm body will do, right? Wrong. Poor hiring decisions mean decreased profits, lost sales, productivity and costumers, increased costs and a decrease in employee morale – costly mistakes for any employer. The average cost of a bad…
Managers often must have difficult conservations on staff work performance. Professional facilitator Robin Parsons discusses how leaders can prepare
For managers, one of the greatest challenges they face is how to have a difficult conversation with a staff person. Managers often must have difficult conservations on work performance, matters of discipline or in cases of conflict. Professional facilitator Robin Parsons discusses how leaders can prepare for such conversations and handle at times unexpected discoveries.…Seven basic management skills to motivate your workers
For over two decades we have been training leaders to manage people by empowering them. Leaders who were authoritarian, who behaved like a parent instead of a coach, were seen as dinosaurs at the end of their era. Times change. I remember how a conversation I had with a client, an enlightened and successful leader, unfolded:…
By being kind, we give those around us hope and inspiration
Mindfulness is a hot trend in organizational effectiveness, with employee programs popping up in innovators like Google and stalwarts like General Mills (Why Google, Target, and General Mills Are Investing in Mindfulness, Harvard Business Review). The demonstrated benefits of mindfulness practices, such as meditation, are mounting. As good and important as mindfulness is (I am…
Team spirit can quickly disintegrate as individuals who feel that they are being discounted simply withdraw
You are brought into a room to play a computer game. On the screen you see your avatar, a computerized graphic that represents you in this virtual environment. You also spot the avatars for two other players, both of whom you assume are physically located with their own computers in similar rooms. At first it…