I work in a lot of corporate as well as public sector settings and I am always amazed at the intellectual horsepower found among corporate executives, partners in professional services firms and SES leaders in the Federal Sector.  Unfortunately, this intellectual horsepower goes partially untapped because of one thing -  the lack of regular feedback.  This is certainly not true for all organizations yet in our experience it is for most.

Can you imagine the implication if guided missiles, satellites, GP-S’s, or your own body’s temperature gauge had no feedback mechanisms built in?  Bottom line, they would not work and in the case of the later the lack of a feedback mechanism would lead to death!  Now look at your organization and ask yourself -

• How effective are we at giving each other constructive feedback?
• If and when we do – what impact does it have on our performance and profitability?
• What, if anything, keeps us from having a more feedback rich culture (e.g. we are too polite to each other, we live in silos, etc.)?

Here are some common challenges that hinder an organization’s ability to improve performance through feedback: (more…)

Consider a typical day in most executive’s lives. You walk into the office with grand plans and while nothing goes according to plans you do feel you accomplished some key outcomes for the day. As the afternoon wares on you look at the clock and realize you have a 5:30 networking event you had committed to attending. You close down for the day, grab a stack of business cards and let your executive assistant know you are off to the event and will see him or her in the morning.

You pull into the parking lot of the hotel where the event is to be held and prepare to enter the fray. You walk into the room full of buzzing conversations and at some level you are wondering how to navigate the event. You may be one to stand around and wait for someone to approach you or you look for a familiar face or you move right in to talk to a key person you were hoping to meet. By the end of the event, you may feel you had some good dialogue, got to share a bit about your business with some key prospects and collected a bunch of business cards in your pocket. Yet, before you know it – it is the next day and you are off tackling the key issues in your office – the networking event you attended is fading in the background. Sound somewhat familiar? If it does read on because I promise if you do – you will approach networking in a totally different way! (more…)

Every savvy business person understands that a key to growing your business involves expanding and deepening relationships.  The next series of blog entries will focus on the essential business practice of networking.  Today, more than ever, your ability to create and sustain a rich, deep and lasting network is central to your long term success.  Yet, before I start discussing the what and how of networking – I want to step back and talk about why networking is so powerful.  Because highlighting this foundation will allow you to be far better prepared to take full advantage of your network.

First attending networking events and being able to clearly articulate what you have to offer is not the foundation of networking.  Certainly attending networking events as well as being able to clearly articulate your value is important but these are tactical areas that support something more important.  Networking is founded on the following principles: (more…)

The purpose of this next series of entries is to provide a practical view of the key pathways of development for executive leaders. Earlier entries in this blog have acknowledged that we are in an exciting time in the executive development field.  A very clear development pathway has been defined along with proven processes for increasing the impact of executive leadership.  If after scanning this entry you are interested in more background for this article you can refer to these previous entries:

• The Truth About Leadership Development
• The Last Obstacle to Executive Development = The Executive

At the root of all this innovation is the confirmation that as adults we continue to develop our mindset and consciousness as we move through life.  The work of Robert Kegan, Lawrence Kohlberg, Ken Wilber, Sara N. Ross, William R. Torbert and Bob Anderson and others has shown the strong connection between a particular stage of adult development and the competencies of leadership.  In short, it has strengthened the concept that leadership develop is really about human development. (more…)

By Harry Beckwith

This is an essential read for anyone who is in professional services.  Today it’s estimated that nearly 75 percent of Americans work in the service sector. Instead of producing tangibles–automobiles, clothes, and tools–more and more of us are in the business of providing intangibles–health care, entertainment, tourism, legal services, and so on.  As Harry Beckwith so eloquently and simply states – it is a mistake to market such intangible services like we have historically sold in a product driven economy.  Some of Beckwith’s points: (more…)