Leaders, The term ‘Politics’ is based on the words ‘Poly’ and ‘Ticks’, ‘Poly’ meaning many, and ‘Ticks’ meaning blood-sucking parasites. Whenever people’s priorities, values, and interests diverge, some type of politicking usually takes place. Office politics are inevitable, and involve intentional acts of influence to enhance or protect the self-interest of individuals or groups. [...]
Leaders, Sometimes it’s hard to tell or to hear the truth. It is one of the biggest fears of human beings to be judged by others. I am sure you are aware of that and have an idea as to how people in your remit typically respond to feedback. Those common reactions to constructive [...]
Leaders, How can you maintain composure and empower your staff during a seemingly endless transition period? How can you reassure your employees that despite the turmoil, your company’s strategy and mission remain clear? How can you motivate your staff to embrace change and add new skills to tweak the way they perform? The simple [...]
Leaders, My little niece and I had a chat about the impact of change recently. She said: “You know, what makes change so hard for me is that I get used to things and attached to people so fast and intensely; that makes letting go almost impossible.” I was flabbergasted about her wise and insightful [...]
Leaders, The Senior Leadership Team have the most overt power in any organization. Their decisions have implications for everyone else in the organization as well as for the future of the organization itself. Many people strive for admittance to that elite table. 95% of top managers are alpha people who made it to the top [...]
Leaders, How much time and effort do you devote to developing your own and others’ strengths? And, conversely, how much time do you invest in fixing your own and others’ shortcomings? Does your staff have the opportunity to do what they do best every day? All leaders have their own unique talents, which they use [...]
Leaders, Are you continuously aligning the tasks and goals of your team with the overall vision and objectives of your organization? How important is team development in your organization? Are you creating an environment that allows people to be all they can be? The subject of high-achieving teams is nothing new. The output of organizations [...]
Leaders, Fear is one of the biggest stumbling blocks people encounter in managing change and moving forward. It heightens your stress level, activates your fight and flight instinct, and can cause you to wake up at night worrying. Your capacity and ability to pay attention is being limited or shut down. You have probably experienced [...]
Leaders, A few days ago, I returned from Lisbon / Portugal where I delivered a speech on Leadership Excellence at the regional EMEA conference of the CFA Institute (cfainstitute.org); attendees came from 43 different countries – something that is otherwise only found at the United Nations. Here are the key messages of my plenary address: [...]
Leaders, Jim Keene, CFA, Atherton Consulting Group, and Annette Czernik, PCC, Inspired Executives, recently designed and delivered a webinar and wrote an article on Executive Presence for the CFA Institute. For us, Executive Presence is a crucial skill set for every leader. We define Executive Presence as follows: „Executives with Presence have deep domain knowledge [...]