Strategic thinking and inspiring leadership are in as business digs out from the turmoil. I came across a 2010 report from the Hay Group recently that identified the top 20 companies for leadership development that you might find useful. For what it’s worth, I know for a fact that most of these companies use executive coaches.
Read more →Leadership Development
START A COACHING REVOLUTION: Fire the Leadership Training Department
GE is a company world famous for its leadership pipeline that turns out world-class CEOs, not only for GE but for other companies. Today, there are signs that the basic paradigm of leadership development that GE made famous is about to change. It started when CEO Jeff Immelt was faced with the impact of the global banking crisis on GE Capital. Jeff Immelt’s new approach to leadership development looks much more like personalized coaching and much less like the top-down, centralized approach of yore.
Read more →START A COACHING REVOLUTION
When I wrote my book Masterful Coaching in 1995, I had spent years criss-crossing the globe on business trips. I often sat next to executives on flights who would voice their disappointment with both leadership training and management consulting. The typical comment was: “We spent over a million on a McKinsey study last year and not a single recommendation was ever implemented.”
Read more →Coaching for HR Executives: Stop Acting Like the Grand Inquisitor
When I wrote my book Masterful Coaching in 1995, I ranted about a schism that took place in the history of management, which involved taking business results and putting it in the hands of the P&L managers and leadership development and putting it in the hands of HR. The result was a wrong-headed approach to leadership development that was based on developing a list of homogenized corporate leadership competencies and forcing them on everyone in the organization.
Read more →Master Mentor 1: The Beginnings of a Journey
Last week I had a meeting with Tony Mayo, professor of the Harvard Business School’s Global Leadership Initiative. It was a cold blustery New England day and I wandered through Harvard Yard in shoes that felt two sizes too small trying to find Tony’s office in the Gallatin Building. It turns out that the front entrance of the Gallatin, a Georgian brick building that reminded me of “merry ole England” was under construction, so I wandered around the building looking for a side door. I eventually happened upon the entrance of the antique brick building with a green door that looked like something right out of Charles Dickens.
Read more →The New Talent Manager is Often the Old Training Manager in Disguise
After a busy day on my This Old House Project, I took off at 6:30 pm for the Big Apple. I had appointments schedule the next day with Morgan Stanley and ABC (Disney). I was to meet with the Global Talent Development Chiefs of each of these companies. Chances are, if you are an executive coach and you call the CEO of big company looking for business, you will be shifted to this department in short order. As I got off the 32nd floor in the burled wood elevator in one of these august companies, a secretary escorted me through some glass doors to meet the Talent Managers. As I stepped into the office, I saw a sign on the door that said, “Training Department.”
Read more →China’s Looming Talent Shortage
An article by McKinsey & Company shows the biggest limit to growth in China won’t be lack of hard assets like capital, steel production or oil and gas, but leadership. Many Chinese companies are growing fast, but suffering from leadership lag, which is the time between plotting a new growth strategy and the time it takes to find the leadership talent to execute it.
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