One of the most important roles of leaders is making the tough decisions.
The ones no one else wants to make…
But everyone wants you to make…
And some will criticize you for not making it sooner …
While others will disagree with your decision.
But the buck stops with you. (more…)
In November of 2022 when OpenAI launched ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer), a technology that lets users ask questions and receive humanlike responses, many early adopters and influencers were quick to try it out and use it in their work.
When it comes to technology, I’m one of those middle-majority adopters. I want others to check it out and work out all the bugs before I get into it. So, I just recently put it to the test, spurred on by a colleague who described how it was helpful to him.
I’d been working on projects for several clients over the past few days, and in addition to researching and developing my own material, I entered various commands to see what it produced. The results were amazing! (more…)
Recently I sat down and opened a book to read with two young children. They selected a picture book where they needed to find hidden objects on different themes. In some of the pictures, I was the first to find the hidden object and I quietly waited for them to peer at the page and point it out. But at other times, they found it first. I was momentarily surprised because as an adult, I thought based on my expertise and perspective I would “see” it first. It made me realize we had different views on the picture based on our frame of reference and the things we were used to visualizing. Our preconceptions were also different as they also pointed out creative objects and ideas in the picture that I never would have noticed.
It occurred to me that as leaders, we have similar experiences in every aspect of our work lives. (more…)
Bob sat down at his desk and let out a huge sigh. He had just returned from lunch with one of the board members at his company. They were preparing for the current CEO to retire within the next 6 months and the board wanted to initiate a formal selection process to confirm Bob as a candidate to replace him. Bob had been with the company for 15 years and held the CFO role for 5 years. It was time to step up. He knew the inner workings of the company as well as challenges in the industry. He also knew that his chances of being selected were pretty good. But there was one nagging issue on his mind. He fundamentally felt that the strategy the current CEO and Board were pursuing wasn’t going to pay off the way they thought. He had shared his concerns in the past but given the politics didn’t feel he could push it too far. Now, if he were to be selected as CEO, he realized he couldn’t lead the organization forward with a strategy he didn’t believe in. He knew that two or three of the twelve board members might support his thinking, but that wasn’t sufficient to make the shift he felt was necessary. And if he declined consideration, he’d have to come up with a really good reason because telling them he didn’t believe in their strategy would call into question his role over the past several years. (more…)
Pat arrived at the office early. She hadn’t slept well the night before because she was wrestling with an important decision that needed to be made in her Executive Committee meeting that morning. They had been evaluating the development and launch of a new product for the past six months. Today they needed to make a final decision on whether they were going to move forward. The discussions had been thorough yet difficult with wide ranging opinions on what they should do. There was significant risk associated with the launch, but the potential reward could be a greatly improved market share. As CEO, she needed everyone to make a full commitment to the decision, and while the objective analysis appeared to lead the team to adopt it, a number of other issues had arisen, and there was a LOT of debate. (more…)
That’s the refrain from a number of my female (and some male) colleagues and friends who reluctantly admit a time when they were the target of unwanted and inappropriate attention from someone. These are accomplished, influential people who found themselves in a situation where a more powerful person demanded undeserved, intimate fulfillment. The demands may have come by way of improper or sexually themed text messages, a “gentle” but suggestive touch on the arm, a lewd remark at the bar, an expectation to continue a business conversation over drinks and dinner, an out of town meeting scheduled in a hotel suite where suddenly everyone else leaves the room, and the list goes on. (more…)
Think about a time when you’ve been in the midst of an important challenge, working on a major project or slogging through solving a pervasive problem. Then you hit a wall. Your burst of energy and creativity has dissipated. Your initial accelerated progress has slowed to a snail’s pace. You and your team are stuck and find it difficult to break through to the next level of innovation and advancement. How do you move forward? You need a new perspective. You need to look at the challenge from a different angle, using a different lens, with a fresh set of eyes.
Unfortunately, too often we waste time pressing forward working on a solution just to show activity, while in reality we’re making minimal headway. A more effective use of our time is to proactively take specific steps to gain a different perspective. When we anticipate the diminishing return on our effort, we can pause and make a shift in our approach to ensure maximum productivity. (more…)
How do you say “no” to the myriad of requests impacting your time?
As your leadership role expands, you are likely discovering that the demands on your time to deliver results and to connect with people inside and outside your organization are increasing. You’re finding that you’re unable to be responsive to the needs that you used to easily fulfill in the past. You want to spend time investing in others but are faced with the challenge of prioritizing the greatest return on investment for your time spent. You find that you must make the most productive connections that are mutually beneficial to all involved.
So, what do you do with the increasing requests for connection on social media? Then there’s the follow up emails to just get 15 minutes of your time to discuss an important topic. Meanwhile, in the office you’re encouraged to support employee engagement by increasing your interactions with team members at all levels of the organization. (more…)
Kelley is stressed. He and his team are on a tight deadline to bring a project to market that could significantly boost his company’s revenues for the fiscal year. The hand off from the development team to them was delayed due to technical issues, and the whole project is now backed up. The pressure is intense as the executive committee is now asking for weekly progress reports to ensure their promises to prospective clients and the shareholders will be met.
At the same time Kelley is exasperated with his team for several errors they’ve made, along with their pushback on part of the strategy that was previously agreed upon. It reached the point that this morning he blew up and let them have it. His words in the brief team meeting were partly uncontrolled anger and partly controlled manipulation. He wanted to make a point and motivate them to stay sharp and move quicker, and to understand the pressure he is experiencing. (more…)
There’s an old fable about three blind men who touched an elephant to find out what it was like. One man touched the leg and declared that the elephant was like a tree trunk. Another touched the elephant’s tail and declared that it was like a snake. The third man touched its side and declared that it was like a wall. A disagreement ensued as they each defended their perspective on the animal. After all, they knew what they felt.
Were each of them right? Yes, and no. They each experienced a part of the elephant, but none experienced the whole. They each described the elephant from their perspective, but due to limitations in their vision and space, none of them could see it in its entirety. Only when they began to compare notes, and to walk around the elephant feeling different parts of it, could they begin to piece together a view of the entire animal. They had to experience it from different angles. Later, a sighted man came along and immediately saw the entire elephant. He quickly walked around the animal, sized it up and fully described it to the men. Their facts were not the same as reality.