3 Tactics to Overcome Leadership Blind Spots – May 2016
Image you are driving down the road in your car, and you start to change lanes. Suddenly you hear a loud “honk,” see another car in the lane you are turning into, and need to quickly swerve to avoid an accident. What happened? You didn’t notice the other car, because it was in your blind […]
Is Your Workforce Trained to Take Charge of Change? – April 2016
What changes are your organization experiencing now? Merger, acquisition, reorganization? New technology implementation or significant upgrade? Major new product or service-offering launch? Sobering statistics show that 70% of major organizational changes fail. We all know the carnage that results from these missteps – lost investment, customer dissatisfaction, employee cynicism. What’s worse is that this failure […]
Let Go to Go Forward
I was thrilled to be invited back to partner once again with a US/Japanese joint venture steel mill that I helped start-up in the early 1990s. As their union-management leadership team informed me, many of the “old timers” who started up the place with me are retiring, and they want to ensure that the very […]
Positive Feedback is the Biggest Source of Motivation
Here’s a question for you: Do you NEED positive feedback to do a great job at work? Like you need oxygen and water? Now, let me ask the question in a slightly different way: When you RECEIVE positive feedback, does it make a difference? Inspire you to do even better, make you feel valued? In […]
Consultant of the Year Award
I was thrilled and honored to be presented with the Change Management Consultant of the Year Award last year, during the first-ever Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) Midwest Chapter Conference. In the words of John Barker, Chapter President (pictured with me): This award honors the change management practitioner who has contributed to the success […]
How Does an Engaged Work Culture Thrive for 25 Years?
Twenty-five years ago the ground broke in a cornfield in Indiana for an innovative new type of steel mill. Nippon Steel of Japan and Inland Steel of the U.S. partnered with the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) to construct I/N Tek and I/N Kote. The mill broke new ground both in its “technical” system, as […]
Winning the Race for Change: Lessons from the Iditarod
During our family vacation to Alaska last year, we got the chance to meet the fabulous and frisky decedents of the Alaskan huskies who led Susan Butcher to victory in the Iditarod (the 1,049 mile dog sled race between Anchorage and Nome, through Alaska’s treacherous sub-Artic terrain). The story of Susan and her favorite dog, Granite, […]
Quit HORSING Around – Lead Change Now!- February 2016
I’m always excited to learn how people are applying Change Intelligence in their lives and organizations to make a positive difference, and I get a special thrill when a CQ Certification Program graduate creates an innovative and impactful way to bring CQ to their clients and workplaces. One particularly compelling example is Gerri Steadman, executive coach […]
What Can Winston Churchill Teach Us about Leading Change?
While in London, I had the pleasure of visiting the Churchill Museum, an extremely well-preserved vista into the past, displaying the underground rooms where Churchill, his ministers, military advisors and staff led the effort to win the Battle of Britain and ultimately World War II. It was amazing to see history frozen in time, and […]
Leading Through Transition: 3 Powerful Tools to Equip Your Team
Dr. Bridges, a giant in the field of change management, shows us the distinction between “change” (what happens on the “outside” – be it a harrowing tsunami or a hostile take-over) and “transition” (what happens on the “inside” – our psychological and emotional reactions). As Dr. Bridges demonstrates, transitioning from the old to the new […]