Office politics---these two words are often used with disdain when discussing the workplace. In fact, research over the last thirty years indicates that political behavior in the office is primarily perceived as negative by individuals and may evoke a sense of unfairness, deprivation and inequity. Political behavior has also been found to have a negative [...]
“My boss is very bright but puts me in awkward situations by saying things that are not true. I am hesitant to bring this up, because he has a short fuse and responds by belittling me,” David explained. If you have not had at least one difficult boss, consider yourself fortunate. Just don’t assume that [...]
"Let's continue this discussion at next week's meeting, because we need to take another look at these issues to get everyone's commitment." As soon as Bill heard the vice president make this statement, his blood pressure shot up 20 points, because this would be the third time that a decision has been kicked down [...]
Obtaining organizational growth and innovation through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) is still a common practice. According to the Institute of Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances, there are 40,000 announced M&As worldwide in 2015 with a total value of approximately $4 trillion. While M&As have been around for a while, the success rate for them is still lacking. Research [...]
How can we help make employee engagement a natural part of our organization? If your company has recently completed an engagement survey, this is likely to be a question you hear more than once. There are a number of ways that organizations can help make this happen. The ones that I encounter most often are [...]
If you are a CEO, an executive team member or a leader heading up a business unit or corporate function, there are some important questions to keep in mind regarding leadership continuity. Who is your successor? Who is your successor’s successor? How often do you review your bench strength? How effective is your pipeline that [...]
Is leadership team humor always humor? Take a look at a common example. Assume you are sitting in a leadership team meeting for a strategic business unit. The senior vice president sitting next to you makes a potentially humorous comment about the senior vice president sitting across the table. When the other team members (including [...]
As an executive, you have inevitably had disagreements with other executives who are peers or direct reports. These differences in perspective are natural parts of business relationships just like they are any other relationships. Research by CPP provides evidence of this with its finding that 85 percent of employees deal with disagreement on a regular [...]
If you are an executive moving into a new role or implementing a change in your organization (e.g., a company, a division, etc.), you may be thinking about designing or redesigning your organization. Although it is natural to want to modify your organization in such a way, this should be done with some clarity and [...]
Have we clearly identified our organization’s competitive advantage? Are we creating a blue ocean as the strategic market space for our company? How does this relate to our human capital? How helpful is a balanced scorecard? Some colleagues may ask these types of questions as you do strategic planning at your organization (especially if these [...]