When It Comes to Change, Seeing Is Believing!
I was recently reminded of the truth of the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and why it’s so relevant for us as change leaders. By nature, I’m a rather left-brained, analytical person – and with my doctoral-degree academic training, early in my career I was the queen of dry, fact-based, death-by-PowerPoint […]
Is Organizational ADHD Derailing Your Change Project?
Sound familiar? “Here we go again – another program of the year!” “Another reorg – who’s my boss today? And I’m expected to pick up the slack – again?!” “Our company slogan should be, ‘All swirl – no strategy’!” As an “organizational doctor,” when I hear clients vent such frustrations, I know they are symptoms […]
Change Lessons from “The Innovation Pipeline” at AT&T
I want to share a real-life example of an organization leading change intelligently to help you on your leadership journey. Through their process, “The Innovation Pipeline” (TIP), AT&T has been able to overcome abysmal 70% change failure rate and achieve continuous innovation. Although it sounds too good to be true, let’s take a closer look […]
“Painful” Change Can Be a Springboard for Professional Development – But Only If You Are Open To It
Here’s an old story to contemplate: A boy from a wealthy family receives a pony for his birthday. The townspeople say, “what a lucky boy.” The Buddhist monk says, “we’ll see.” The boy suffers a crippling injury while riding the horse. The townspeople say, “what an unlucky boy.” The Buddhist monk says, “we’ll see.” An […]
What Can Change Leaders Learn from Salespeople?
When you think of “sales” and “salespeople,” what words leap to mind? While some have positive perceptions, many would respond with choices such as, “sly, slick, and smarmy”! Regardless of your formal role or job title, we’re all in the business of sales and we’re all salespeople – whether we like it or not. This […]
Women’s Voices at Work
From Marissa Mayer’s high profile people-management decisions in her role as Yahoo’s CEO to Sheryl Sandberg’s provocative assertions in her book Lean In, there continues to be a lot of debate about leadership and the sexes – and whether men and women lead differently. Although there’s some hype and “drama” surrounding this topic, it’s a […]
Consultant of the Year Award! – October 2015
I was thrilled and honored to be presented with the Change Management Consultant of the Year Award this month, 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 […]
CQ + EQ: A Potent Combination for Leaders (and what it means for you)
Assuming you’re familiar with CQ, let’s take a step back and look at EQ. When introducing the concept to clients for the first time, I often get a response such as, “we base our decisions on logic and facts – we don’t bring our emotions to work.” Or, as one of my more colorful clients, […]
Do Men and Women Lead Change Differently?
The short answer is “yes.” Although in the U.S. women comprise half the workforce, earn the majority of college and post-graduate degrees, and own 40% of businesses, when we look at Fortune 500 companies, only 4% of CEOs and only 16% of Board Members are women. Yet, we also know from research by Catalyst, McKinsey, and […]
4 Questions about Change Intelligence (so you can apply it today)
To help illustrate how CQ is relevant to change leaders like yourself, I thought I’d share with you some of the questions I’ve been asked about how to apply the principles of the book to your team or organization: With all the leadership books out there, why was it important for you to write this […]