By Ian Sampson As the old saying goes, “Being emotionally crippled is not essential for running a business but it sure helps!” (I just made that old saying up!) So what if your personal life is a mess? What does it matter, so long as you delude yourself that you are keeping up appearances on […]
Nearly All CEO’s Want It But Only One In Three Get It
The Stanford Graduate School of Business and The Miles Group recently surveyed over 200 CEOs and found that nearly two-thirds do not receive coaching or leadership advice from outside consultants or coaches, and almost half of their senior executives are not receiving any either. It further found almost 100% of CEO’s see value in receiving […]
Misleading Conduct # 1: Not Providing Context
In a recent post, Ian Sampson identified 21 examples of poor leadership which he described as “Misleading conduct”. Over the coming months he will dive into these examples in more detail commencing today with the issue of not providing context for staff. By Ian Sampson You may have heard of the old story of the two […]
The Executive Coaching planets are finally beginning to align
By Chris Gandy Many moons ago, I reported to a senior executive who, when considering the right time to act on a significant business decision, had a pet saying “Wait till all the planets are aligned”. Of course he wasn’t referring to some Mayan or harmonic convergences, eclipses and other awe-inspiring inter-galactic phenomenon. He was talking about […]
Why isn’t servant leadership more prevalent?
By Cynder Sinclair D.M. With servant leadership, a leader’s primary role is to serve employees. Everyone from Lao-Tzu to Max De Pree thinks this a wonderful model. Why then, asks Professor Jim Heskett in this insightful article, is this style so rare among CEOs? What is Servant Leadership? Servant leadership is an age-old concept, a term […]
Unlock your best ideas
By Patrick McFadden Here are some tips to unlock your creativity and your best ideas: You need more “me” time. Get away from your normal routine. Go for a long walk, exercise more Take an art (woodworking, sculpture, gardening) class Put yourself around people who are high performers. Henry Ford once said he didn’t want […]
Don’t under-estimate the power of real experience in Executive Coaching
By Chris Gandy Much is written about “what makes a good executive coach” – do a search and see how often it comes up. Most pundits seem to agree on an array of personal qualities such as trust, integrity, active listening, interpersonal skills, tough love, confidentiality, organisational insight etc. All are important, but one quality […]
Dealing with public-speaking jitters
By Chris Gandy It is rare when coaching CEO’s of cause-based organisations that the need for public speaking, and the resultant angst, isn’t raised. Actually more than one person has confided that knowing they will be asked to speak publicly about their organisation caused them to think twice about actually applying for the position in the first […]
Five questions great executives ask when dealing with performance problems
“I’ve got to act on a performance issue with one of my executives,” the CEO said over lunch. “How do you know it’s a performance issue?” I asked “Well, he’s been caught out not telling the truth on a couple of important matters. He is countermanding projects I have set up and he has stopped […]
Joe is leaving! Now what are we going to do?
OK Joe is going. He has been a good and loyal employee and has been offered a fantastic opportunity. Our best wishes go with him! Right, time to activate the Succession Plan! What’s that? You don’t have one or did have but let it die on the vine? Sound familiar? This scenario got me thinking about […]
B-Cause 