Trying to Get Your Employees to Do What You Want?

I was working with a CEO named Jeff the other day who was frustrated with one of his employees. This employee—Paul, the leader of an important business unit—wasn’t doing what Jeff would ask of him. This in turn was putting a wrench in the works of the business, and allowing the competition to creep in.…

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DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN FOR A REASON?

How might you complete the following sentence? “It would have been better if…”

Got something?

Here are some ideas:

“… that business/initiative/project had been successful.”
“… I had learned to play guitar as a kid.”
“… so-and-so had wanted to be with me.”

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GROWING PAINS

“Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” Harriet Tubman I’ve coached individuals across a broad spectrum; CEOs, Managing Directors, Marketing Directors, Account Directors, Entrepreneurs, Managers, Senior Lecturers, Academics, Physiotherapists, Psychotherapists, Coaches…the list goes on! This past year has taught me…

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WHEN CEOs DELEGATE THE WRONG TASKS

As a first-time CEO, as your company grows and the work becomes more complex, and while you have a team to help you with this goal, you’ll notice that fundamentally there becomes two different kinds of jobs to do. The first job is to imagine new ways of growing the company, to forge new strategies,…

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YOUR TEAM IS LESS ALIGNED THAN YOU THINK

What most leaders assume about their organization or about any other person is that they have a much, much greater shared reality and perspective than really exists.  If the person you’re speaking to agrees with your point of view, the natural human reaction is to assume that this agreement extends to alignment on every aspect of the topic.

Let me give you an example. Say a CEO tells his team, we’re going to focus on channel sales because channel is a much higher leverage approach for us….

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KNOW WHEN TO SAY F-IT

I think you need to take more risks.

A client of mine (first-time CEO) was asking me what she should do. Raising her “B round” of funding was harder than she expected, and she was getting tons of feedback from potential investors that a strategic pivot to a more familiar business model might make it easier for them to write the big check.

“I know I could make it work, sell the company in a few years for a decent valuation, and…

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