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6 Leadership Assessment Tools to Try in 2021
I have always been serious about improving my leadership skills and investing in professional development. This goes back 25 years to when I was a young leader in my family business, and was responsible for leading a team of people who were older and more experienced than myself. Today, as a leadership and succession planning keynote speaker, I help my clients develop these qualities.
Leading Yourself to the Top in Succession Planning
Within the next 10 years, Boomers will have all but handed over the reins of corporate leadership to succeeding generations. This is likely the biggest leadership handover the corporate world has seen to date, and companies large and small are wisely making preparations. On the succession planning keynote speaker circuit, I’ve been working with my clients to create unique strategies that work within the realms of their family businesses.
Tips for Building a Balanced Board
As a succession planning keynote speaker, I meet a lot of family business and closely held company owners—and I find that a surprising number of them are operating without any kind of advisory board. Of course, most of them are attending my talks in the context of...
The Talent Turnaround: Why Your A-Players Will Get You Through This + How to Keep Them
How the world has changed in recent months! While we’re learning to balance the challenges of “the new normal” during a global health epidemic I wanted to offer a few thoughts on the value of human capital. Please read on for valuable tips on how to keep your A-Players.
Five Reasons Your CEO is Putting Off Retirement
In my travels as a succession planning keynote speaker, I meet a lot of business owners & CEOs. Not surprisingly, the subject of succession planning comes up often, but what *is* surprising — the number of successful corporate leaders who claim to have a succession plan in their head, and nothing written down.
The Myth of the Safe Decision: Risk + Reward in a COVID-19 World
Regardless of industry or company size, today’s business leader likely has some incredibly tough decisions ahead. With the entire world experiencing the COVID-19 crisis together, it’s clear that the rules of business engagement have changed.
This One Thing Could Bring Your Business Down (and it’s Not COVID-19)
In the midst of this global crisis that we’re all navigating together, most business owners and leaders are focused on basic survival. They’re exploring the nuances of a (suddenly) remote workforce, looking for creative ways to recoup unexpected losses, and pondering substantial operational pivots to adapt to an ever-expanding “distance marketplace.”
Inspiration in Transition: On Successfully Weathering the Storm
In times of crisis, employees look to their leaders for reassurance as well as inspiration. They want to know that the company they work for is going to survive the current challenges—and hopefully, one day thrive. We have never before seen the global economy hit “pause” in this way.
Stepping Out, Not Down: Why Your Aging CEO Won’t Retire
You’ve done your succession planning homework, and you’ve taken all the right steps—whether this involved meticulously grooming younger members of the family business, or conducting an exhaustive search for a competent and closely aligned outside candidate for you...
The Next Generation of Leaders: 5 Things Gen Z Needs to Succeed
On the succession planning keynote speaker circuit—and in this blog—I talk a lot about Millennials in the marketplace. Comprising half the current U.S. workforce and expected to reach 75% over the next five years, this complex generation cannot (and should not) be...
Freedom to Fail: One Simple Way to Foster Fearless Employees
Failure is an inevitable part of life—and, of course, business. It’s a topic I cover thoroughly as leadership and succession planning speaker, in part because I learned early in my career to actually value failure for the indelible lessons it can teach us, both about business and about ourselves.
Talent + Technology: Hiring for the Digital Economy
On the business growth speaker circuit, I hear a lot of talk about Millennials. I recently wrote a post on how to adapt to working with this generation, and wanted to supplement those ideas with some thoughts on how their unique toolkit and perspective is affecting the way we hire. The global workforce is on the brink of a powerful sea of change.
The Myth of “The Right Time” + Three Reasons to ACT NOW
As a leadership keynote speaker, there’s one phrase I hear more often than any other: “We’re just waiting for the right time to make these changes.” If there truly was a “right time” for any kind of change, whether personal or professional, I probably wouldn’t have a career on the leadership keynote speaker circuit.
The Art of Saying “No” – Real-World Strategies for the Over-Committed
As a reformed over-committer, I have seen first-hand how easy it is to fill up your calendar with tasks and appointments that aren’t personally OR professionally fulfilling. When I first began to practice the art of saying “no,” I started every sentence with the word “sorry.” Now, when I’m declining an invitation or project, I start with “thank you. Particularly during my time on the succession planning speaker circuit, I found I had dozens of opportunities during the day to give away my most precious resource—my time—for free.
The Role of the Board During Family Business Succession
The combination of family and business is always a challenging one – and never more so than during the changing of the guard. As I’ve seen first-hand, both during my travels as a succession planning speaker and in my experience taking over my family’s business, firm boundaries, and indisputable objectivity are essential to the succession planning process. As a succession planning speaker, I’m often asked for common succession planning scenarios in which a Board of Advisors can be particularly helpful.
5 Ways Leaders Undermine their Teams’ Success
It may sound counter-intuitive, but one of the reasons I’ve been so successful as a business turnaround speaker is that I’ve experienced nearly ALL of my clients’ challenges first-hand. There are countless situations in which we can unknowingly stand in our own way—here are five scenarios I see most often in my work, and how to get around them.
Why Families Fight During Succession and How to Stop It
It may not surprise you to learn that many businesses fail to survive the succession process and fall prey to family infighting. Here are a few reasons conflict situations that might arise during this complex and emotionally charged time—and how to defuse them.
3 Ways to Reclaim Your Commute
While I don’t really have a commute, per se, as a succession planning speaker I spend a fair amount of time traveling. And it seems I’m not alone; a recent AAA survey found that the average American adult spends about 300 hours—or nearly two full weeks’ time—in the...
Q&A: Choosing (or Creating) the Right Successor
In my travels on the succession planning speaker and business turnaround speaker circuits, one of the most popular topics of discussion is leadership talent. My clients wonder: when is the right time to choose one’s successor, and what kind of leaders should they be looking for?
4 Ways Millennials Can Actually Make Your Company Stronger
If you’ve been reading the news at all in recent years, you may have noticed a mounting “body count” of all the industries and institutions Millennials have, according to clickbait journalism, allegedly “killed” with their complex and mercurial ways. Shouty headlines seem to announce a new “death” every day – RIP, American Dream…and thanks for nothing, Millennials!
BUSINESS CONTINGENCY PLANNING: WHAT, WHY + HOW
As a succession planning speaker, I’m often asked about business contingency planning within the larger context of succession planning—are the two ideas related, and how? The answer isn’t difficult to understand, but it does require a bit of clarification.
