Management controls can be used to overcome the challenge of aligning conflicting corporate strategies with functional tasks, such as new product development.
Trevor opens with a case study of a large business, which had grown quickly led by a charismatic CEO. The CEO was beloved by employees but feared by his senior team. He had always had all the answers but the size and complexity of the business prevented him from being able to oversee it all now, and now wanted his senior team to run the operations and discover new solutions. As each division was run as a standalone entity (and competed for glory between each other at Board meetings) this collaborative approach, that might leverage economies-of-scale was not in their mindset. The case study...
Inspiring the human desire to help others, customer contact sparks the collective energy of employees, leading to better company performance. Transformational leadership is vital, however, to capture the benefits of customer contact.
A recent study exploring the world of work in 2028 based on today’s trends reveals the growing power of small vs. big, the vital importance of truly allowing mistakes (and not just talking about it) and the tension in communication strategies between the connection of face-to-face vs. the convenience of digital meetings.
Leadership prowess is elusive, despite the enormous amount invested in it and written about it. This is partly because we require different types of leaders for different types of situation but tend to seek and act out a single leadership style, all too often the charismatic, strong, opinionated one. This inability is partly because we have few effective metaphors for leader that resonate with us, both telling us what they do and that we can relate to. Servant leader never quite rings true as a metaphor as we struggle to envisage leading as a servant; agile/adaptive leadership does not...
Avoiding a toxic worker enhances performance and costs less than replacing an average worker with a superstar — even if the superstar performs in the top 1% of employees.
Leadership humility is contagious, resulting in a collective humility that focuses the leader’s group or organization around achieving high team performance.
Leading brand consultant, Anne Bahr Thompson, has been conducting research over recent years through her CultureQ initiative into, initially how Millennials and then other generations, think about brands. One of the strongest new elements is the power of corporate citizenship and how 'doing good' also helps businesses 'do well'. Her 'Brand Citizenship' model takes customer focus from Me-to-We.
For middle managers, behavioural integrity — the perception by subordinates that management behaviour matches their words — is a key factor for success. Unfortunately, organizations often undermine their middle managers’ behavioural integrity with contradictory policies and decisions — or policies, directives or decisions for which they never acquired middle management buy-in.
