Don’t Let Executive Team Dynamics Derail your Year-End Business Planning

Executive team dynamics can get in the way of developing and executing next year's strategies. Here’s why—and how to identify the elephant in the room. A healthy executive team rationally looks at last year’s performance and devises a clear strategy that sets the business up for success. But when team dynamics clouds the picture, strategies and budgets wind up weak or incomplete. And team members don’t fully commit to the plans, objectives, and actions necessary for success. Sometimes, these issues stem from legitimate disagreements about the best path forward. Other times, executives lack the skills and ability to align, a [...]

Get Results and Be Great with People

By Matthew Levy  Problem: The executives that I speak with want to get better results at work. Some people push too hard and are perceived as jerks or bossy overlords. Other people struggle to get results because they’re weak, don’t to ask for what they want, or don’t hold others accountable. The Place to Start is Awareness: The place to start is awareness. Awareness of our strategy and tactics is helpful. And, awareness about how we are perceived by others at work is valuable. We can learn from that. When preoccupation about how we are perceived becomes a distraction, disempowering, [...]

Why Even Top Performers Stop Short of Doing Their Best Work

"I need my people to be honest with me ─ tell me what I need to hear ─ and push themselves to get the results without me having to push them." ─ a frustrated CEO and client The Problem: Sometimes, even the intelligent and talented fall short of stellar performance. Are they just afraid to push it when their results suffer? The Real-Life Situation: The VP of Supply Chain and a client was a very successful executive with a strong pedigree -- top of his class at West Point, MBA from a top school, and previously a strategy consultant. He [...]

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