An Executive Coach's perspective on how communication tactics can drive permanent change and develop future leaders

There is one simple, yet big difference in communication styles between simply managing a team and leading a team.  It’s a cycle…

Who doesn’t want to improve and achieve their goals? Sounds like a rhetorical question, I know. I can’t name anyone within my professional circle who wouldn’t have some desire to “take it to the next level.” In this blog, I take a closer look at the three factors that will determine your ability to make serious and deliberate progress towards your goals, whether they are…

AN EXECUTIVE COACH’S PERSPECTIVE ON HOW COMMUNICATION TACTICS CAN DRIVE PERMANENT CHANGE AND DEVELOP FUTURE LEADERS

There is a simple, yet strategically significant difference in the communication styles of leaders and managers.…

OK!  This is more of a play on words, because I’m not talking about the Pareto principle which states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.  But now that I have your attention, Jeff Bezos was recently featured in an article about how much information you really need to make business decisions.  He proclaims 70% is just fine and who can argue with his success? 

We’ve heard the saying “you don’t know what you don’t know.”  Well,…

“Your strategy should be reviewed and updated on a quarterly basis.  Of course, that assumes you went through a disciplined thought process and have a real strategy to start with!”  - Stephen Lynch, COO, Results.com

Does your company…

“Today more than ever, the fate of an organization depends on its ability to recruit, retain, and, when necessary, replace talent.”

–        Emmett C. Murphy, Talent IQ

In his best selling book, Talent IQ, Emmett Murphy lays out a very clear and researched process for increasing your company’s productivity and profitability. It all…

Chances are that you or someone that you know has been impacted by the recent economic upheaval of the past few years. Companies have downsized, closed plants, relocated, moved operations off-shore and even outsourced or automated many jobs. These were themes that played out across the country and continue to have a ripple effect even in our business of talent…

un·for·get·ta·ble  adj. -Earning a permanent place in the memory; memorable

Years ago I read a great cartoon that showed a dog owner talking to his dog. The cartoon was about what the owner was saying to the dog and what the dog actually heard. The dog had just made a mess of the owner’s kitchen and the owner is letting the dog have it. “Rover, how many time have I told you? The kitchen is not…

“Building a great teamin business takes clear thinking, a strong strategy, and an understanding of the big picture. All these factors are necessary and important, but if you can’t assess candidates in the job interview, you’re not going to put that understanding into practical…

“Recruiting is hard. It’s just finding the needles in the haystack. You can’t know enough in a one-hour interview. So, in the end, it’s ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data.” – Steve Jobs

Finally someone has come out and said what we in the business of recruiting and talent acquisition have known all…

In his groundbreaking book, Intellectual Capital, author Thomas Stewart writes “The management of talent, your human capital is part of an uncertain and complex endeavor that must deal with technology and competitors that won’t stand still, must formulate strategy and place multi-million dollar bets on the basis of highly imperfect information, and that adds to…

“If you ignore the opportunity to lead, you risk turning into a ‘sheepwalker’ – someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you or your organization any good.”  - Seth Godin, Tribes

There has been a good deal written recently about leadership, what it is and who exemplifies it.…

hoop·la - /ˈhuplɑ/ noun . 1. bustling excitement or activity; commotion; hullabaloo; to-do. 2. sensational publicity; ballyhoo.

In a recent article written by John Roach for msnbc.com entitled “The revolution at work is here”, the suggestion is made that the promise of the dot.com internet era of the late ‘90s of how drastically…

Are you feeling the heat? Is the weather hot enough for you? Well welcome to the dog days of summer. I know that many of you have heard that expression and have some idea to what it refers. For the longest time I thought it actually had something to do with real dogs, chows, dachshunds, labs and mutts all getting together and avoiding the heat. But just so that we…

Go to any company’s web site, pick up any company’s annual report, read any company’s marketing material and chances are good that you will come across the phrase, “our people are our most important asset”. In some cases in order to emphasize how important, the phrase is often in bold and italics.

Do the leaders of these…

Asking the Why question makes the How, What, Where, When and Who that much easier to answer.

At a recent TEDx conference, Jeffrey Fox, the NYT best selling author of How to Become a Rainmaker, How to Become a CEO and Rain to name just a few, was speaking to an audience of sales people, sales…

This week we at Q4B will be putting the final touches on a webinar that we will be presenting at the HR Institutes Virtual Conference July 25 -26, 2011. The topic will be “Social Media for Recruiting and HR – Making It Part of Your Talent Acquisition and Retention Strategy”. We…

If you think that this blog is all about the movie, “Horrible Bosses” which opened nationwide July 8, you are sadly mistaken. That movie has been highly publicized and has already received some mixed reviews, even though the cast is not lacking for star power (Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Aniston). Summer movies very rarely fall…

For as long as I have been in this business, the business of sourcing, screening and selecting great talent for client companies, I have felt that more could be done. I felt that those of us who do this type of work were only being allowed to do just so much in bringing great talent to an organization, and that once the offer to a candidate had been made and accepted, our role ended. This is especially true for 3^rd party recruiters, but is also true for those of us who provide a…

This is a story that Ben Zander tells in his book The Art of Possibility.

“Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing the affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fists on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: “Peter,” he says, “kindly remember Rule…