Top Leadership Digital Management Leadership Content for September, 2016

Influencing people who don’t report to you

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

Maybe the toughest thing in management to do is persuade others to go along with you when you have no authority over them. If you find yourself in this situation, consider these five action steps. Do your homework. Find out what your colleagues in different functions think about the initiative. Make your case. Demonstrate how the initiative will make things better in the long run.

Report

Report Influence Short-term Long-term

Exploring Alternate Futures Can Help Identify Future Leaders

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Scenarios and scenario-based planning are widely recognized as valuable tools in setting organizations’ visions and strategies. Shell is the most famed for their scenarios and their process for developing them and using them. But they are far from alone. Many of the leading companies around the world use them, including Apple, GE, Disney, British Airways, Boeing, Mercedes, and the list goes on.

Scenario Planning

Scenario Planning Strategic Planning Planning Budgeting

How Arnold Palmer Mastered Golf And Fame By Being Himself

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 28, 2016

They called him the King but he never acted the part. He was Arnold Palmer who behaved in accordance with the words his father, a golf pro in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, taught him. “Those people in the gallery are all the same as you.”. The deluge of stories about Palmer, the man and the golfer, upon his death at age 87 have a central theme. Total accessibility.

Film

Film Licensing Learning-by-Doing Advertising

Culture by Design: The Essentials

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Last week, we published the first installment of our 3-part series on company culture. In that first piece, we began to demystify a concept that I’m calling culture by design. This week we’ll explore the essential that my firm provides to clients when building cultures by design with them. Keep in mind, this is just one approach to do the work at hand and it’s one that we refined over decades of doing corporate culture work with our clients.

Workshop

Workshop Reference Business Objectives Marketing Strategy

Put passion into your pocket when you argue

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Passion may hurt you more than help you in your next argument. That’s a conclusion of new research into persuasion by a pair of university academics and reported by Shankar Vedantam of NPR. Passion, often highly prized by leaders, may actually work against that leader if he or she is trying to reach out to someone who may not agree with them. This new research into persuasion really is confirmation of what all good leaders do when seeking consensus; they first seek to understand what the other i

Consensus

Consensus Report System Leadership

Video: Learning leadership from a golf pro

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Before you can understand others, you need to spend time walking in their shoes. That saying is so common it may be regarded as trite and therefore worthy of ignoring. Too bad! The other day, I was reminded of the power of this statement when talking to a friend of mine, Tim Katanski, who is a teaching golf pro at Ann Arbor Golf & Outing in Michigan.

Video

Video Leadership Execution Power

Culture By Design: A Call to Action

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

This is the first installment of an important 3-part series on Company Culture that I will be bringing to my Inc. readers. The series focuses on how to become more deliberate in creating a work environment that enables and empowers your organization to achieve and exceed all your expectations. I call the concept that I’m going to share with you: Culture By Design.

Leadership Styles

Leadership Styles Article Globalization Productivity

Vision, mission and values

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

Sometimes we can be too clever and in the process lose sight of what it is we are trying to achieve. Such is the case with vision, mission and values statements. Every organization needs to have them, but in trying to craft them, we sometimes overshoot the mark and end up writing something that sounds to good to be true. Toward that end, here are three ways to define them.

Belief Systems

Belief Systems System Process Organization

‘Sell’ Is A Four Letter Word All Of Us Can Use

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 16, 2016

He’s just trying to sell you something. She’s just a salesperson. Comments such as these – and many more – reflect the public’s attitude toward sales and the sales process. Is there any business process more despised than sales? Yet we all know the maxim – without the customer there is no business. If sales is held in such low esteem then how are customers supposed to come to us?

Letter

Letter Long-term Process Follow-up

When “no” can lead to “yes”

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

The most valuable resource a good executive employs is her time. In her book “ Year of Yes ,” television executive producer and writer Shonda Rhimes shares that her way of budgeting time was to say “no” to everything but work in order to spend more time at home. This was a strategy that enabled Rhimes to devote time to her children as well as find time to write.

Budgeting

Budgeting Learning-by-Doing Execution Resources

10 Leadership Lessons From My Favorite Clint Eastwood Movie Quotes

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Regular readers of my weekly column have come to expect me to do my best in presenting them with fresh perspectives on how to manage the challenges that most of them face as leaders in their respective organizations. But, this week I decided to lighten it up a bit and look to what can be learned from some of my favorite Clint Eastwood movie quotes. So, let’s have some fun!

Contingency Plans

Contingency Plans Leadership Bottom-up Film

Visit people where they work

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Visiting with employees in their work space is a good habit that not only shows respect but also allows the leader the opportunity to get an up close and personal look at how the work is going. At the same time, a leader’s time is valuable; she must ration it carefully so here are some suggestions for when to visit a subordinate. So here are four reasons to do it: To clear the air.

Budgeting

Budgeting Project Team Leadership

The Evolution of the Executive, C-Suite, and Boardroom

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

People will undoubtedly say, “there is no way this guy is old enough to have experienced working in the 80’s and 90’s,” and they would be right. However, as part of any sound Executive Search professional’s toolkit, research is a useful addition, and in many ways, often goes a long way. So, how did it all look back in the ‘good ol’ days’ and how and why did it change, well; Back in the late 80’s and 90’s top leadership roles recruited for, in the boardroom and on the executive commit

Execution

Execution Committee Innovation Short-term

Can You Be Happy If You Are Clueless?

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

How happy would you be if you spent your life living a delusion? This thought sums up the theme of Marguerite , the French film is inspired by the life of 20th century American socialite Florence Foster Jenkins. Marguerite is a dowager who fancies herself a soprano; she can indulge in this fantasy because she has wealth, a husband with a title, and a network of friends and associates who appreciate her largesse.

Film

Film Self-aware CEO Positioning

The power of equity

N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

Equity is the currency that makes the world go around. Let me explain this statement in the context of companies using equity capital to grow, scale, and ultimately monetize the business. Companies report equity in the form of paid-in founder capital, investor capital, retained earnings, and converted debt capital, which lenders may own out of a conversion event.

Power

Power Incentives Short-term Morale