N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2016

“It is a concept that the modern leader is wise to adopt—one part courage, one part can-do spirit, and one part recognition…” In his new book Moxie: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership, John Baldoni etches a well-tested road to bring out the Moxie leader in you.

Books 244

Books Leadership 244

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 31, 2016

You can’t be your best if you don’t make time for yourself! Here’s how writer-director-producer Peter Berg put it when speaking about his passion for boxing. “[T]he contact and the focus and the energy I get from sparring gives me energy to make movies, energy to be a dad, energy to be a friend, and, you know, makes me feel, probably, a lot younger and behave a lot younger than I am.”.

Sports 243

Sports Energy Film Budgeting 243

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 24, 2016

We hold leaders accountable for results; the buck stops with leaders. It is a leader’s responsibility to put people into positions where they can succeed. But so often that is not always possible. In my work as an executive coach of senior leaders — particularly ones who have been hired from the outside or are new to their roles — I always ask about “bench strength.”.

Team 242

Team Executive Coaching Goal Execution 242

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 242

Leadership Styles Article Globalization Productivity 242

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 18, 2016

There is no doubt! Company culture is passed down from generation to generation of personnel through myth and legend. In fact, company culture is so deeply embedded into every organization that it often appears impossible to change. N2Growth boldly disagrees with that thought. In fact, we have developed an entire suite of intellectual property that we call Culture By Design that can help you institute the company culture that you need to differentiate your organization from all of the rest.

Download 242

Download Engineering Innovation Company 242

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 25, 2016

Are your strategic planning practices flat and uninspired? Have you reduced your planning process to a once per year, budgeting exercise? Do your senior people feel disengaged and removed from your strategic planning? Does the rank and file even understand what’s in your strategic plan? Clearly, it’s time for a new strategic planning paradigm to emerge – one that features the right set of “ next practices ” that your organization can embrace to dramatically increase

Strategy 241

Strategy Strategic Planning Span of Control Hedge 241

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 31, 2016

We all know about the pyramid structure. It’s a generic way to think about an enterprise and how most are organizationally design. Divided into three layers, the top layer of the pyramid is comprised of the senior-most leaders. These are the people responsible for setting strategic direction and guiding the enterprise towards its future. While certainly concerned with quarterly performance, the leaders at the top of the pyramid must also have a forward-thinking, “Where will we be in

Tips 239

Tips Middle Management Strategic Planning Objective 239

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 3, 2016

Last week, we published the 2nd installment of our 3-part series on corporate culture transformation. It focused on core work products that must be produced to transform a corporate culture. Here is the final installment of the concept that I’m calling Culture By Design. This week we’ll look at the 6 cultural levers that every management team has at its disposal to set cultural direction and manage the change that is necessary to establish an organization’s Culture by Design, i

Learning-by-Doing 283

Learning-by-Doing Commitment Organization Politics 283

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Ours is a society that reveres winners. We love winning. And while our quest for victory is laudable, we too often overlook those who compete nobly and yet fail to win the ultimate prize. Sadly we label them as “losers.”. Essential to a leader’s development is managing adversity. It’s one thing to lead when everything is going your way; it is another thing to lead when the odds are against you.

Management 238

Management Development Succession Leadership 238

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 237

Workshop Reference Business Objectives Marketing Strategy 237

N2Growth Blog

DECEMBER 5, 2016

I bet if I asked you what your company is all about you’d give me that same ol’ rehearsed elevator pitch. You’d be able to tell me what it does and why it’s important. But, if I asked you how. You just might stall. The answers on “ how ” a business does what it does lies in its unique combination of systems that governs how it executes its mission.

Operations 236

Operations System Human Capital Strategic Planning 236

N2Growth Blog

DECEMBER 6, 2016

What’s the secret to a long-term relationship? “Overlooking the negative and focusing on the positive,” says Helen Fisher, a best-selling author on relationships and a fellow at the Kinsey Institute. Speaking on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show , Fisher says that brain scans of couples averaging 20 years revealed the parts of the brain that were active were those linked to empathy, self-control, and an ability to overlook negative, that is, “positive illusions.”.

Positioning 234

Positioning Letter Advice Long-term 234

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 234

Film Licensing Learning-by-Doing Advertising 234

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 17, 2016

Many firms suffer from poor communications. It’s my theory is that too few firms have the necessary communications program in place to do it well. Take the following steps to develop an effective communications program plan: 1. Delineate your objectives – Determine what you expect to gain from your communications program. Objectives could range from enhancing service delivery and improving staff loyalty to gaining a bigger marketplace influence or upgrading relations with the media a

Audience 233

Audience Objective Brainstorming Project 233

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 31, 2016

“I wanted to be a voice that reflected experience and the world I live in. So I knew in 1972 that to do this, I would need to write very well and more individually than I had ever written before.”. That is Bruce Springsteen quoted in his autobiography, Born to Run. Defining himself as an artist is something the Boss spoke about at length with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air.

Self-aware 232

Self-aware Leadership Core Competence Micromanagement 232

N2Growth Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

Today’s Executive Search and Management Consulting firms are famous for espousing “Best Practices.” But guess what? Nothing could be more detrimental to your organization. Think about it this way: Why would you and your organization want to “follow the herd”? At N2Growth, we’re not just another consulting firm espousing best practices. We are strategic thought partners co-creating Next Practices with our clients.

Reputation 271

Reputation Consultative Competitive Advantage Budgeting 271

N2Growth Blog

NOVEMBER 14, 2016

By definition, temperament connotes disposition — an outlook on the world but also a sense of individuality that radiates self-assurance. In my experience, those with a good temperament are those who bring people toward them. Why? Because they invite smart people and feel warmed by their presence. That in turn encourages a spirit of contribution that leads to collaboration.

Definition 230

Definition Team Leadership 230

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 229

Scenario Planning Strategic Planning Planning Budgeting 229

N2Growth Blog

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Today’s Executive Search and Management Consulting firms s are famous for espousing “Best Practices.” But guess what? Nothing could be more detrimental to your organization. Think about it this way: Why would you and your organization want to “follow the herd”? At N2Growth, we’re not just another consulting firm espousing best practices.

Reputation 228

Reputation Consultative Competitive Advantage Budgeting 228

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 3, 2016

Vin Scully, the voice of baseball’s Dodgers for their final years in Brooklyn and all of their years in Los Angeles, is retiring at the end of this season. Scully , who got his start in broadcasting career as college student Fordham in New York, began calling games with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950 when he was just 22. He worked alongside the great Red Barber, and succeeded Ernie Harrell, both legendary Hall of Fame announcers.

Sports 267

Sports Airlines Travel Class 267

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 24, 2016

You may have read my 3-part series on Company Culture. It was featured in this column last month. In it I suggested that there were 6 levers available to leaders that enable culture transformation. Buried inside of those were digital business practices and social impact elements – two paradigms worthy of further exploration because their potential for startling impact on organizational dynamics.

Company 227

Company Construction Technology Participative 227

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 227

Letter Long-term Process Follow-up 227

N2Growth Blog

NOVEMBER 29, 2016

“If you don’t connect, you don’t persuade.” You need to speak the language of the listener, and this requires that you learn something about them as well as tailor your argument to meet their needs. Here are three tips for connecting with people you are trying to persuade. Do your homework. Find out what others are thinking and doing. Listen to them speak.

Audience 225

Audience Learning-by-Doing Follow-up Tips 225

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 217

Budgeting Project Team Leadership 217

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 215

Belief Systems System Process Organization 215

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 215

Consensus Report System Leadership 215

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 6, 2016

Each year HR professionals undertake an annual process to determine what benefits will be offered to employees as part of their benefit package – possibly considering what benefit will be taken away or how much premiums will increase to offset growing benefit plan costs. The changing landscape created by the Affordable Care Act has made it difficult, but not impossible to assert control over company health care spend.

Cost 241

Cost Health Care Company ROI 241

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 210

Video Leadership Execution Power 210

N2Growth Blog

JANUARY 20, 2016

By Brody Clemmer. Chief Innovation Officer, N2Growth. Leadership is a hot topic today and will continue to be for a while. I don’t want to tell you the things that you already know, but make you think about the things you don’t. Let’s stop discussing trends, predictions, and statistics, and let’s focus on people. The individuals that will shape the next generation of leadership are not a group of millennials, they are a group of leaders just as the generation before them, and the many generati

Leadership 205

Leadership Operations Industry Trends 205

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 204

Budgeting Learning-by-Doing Execution Resources 204

N2Growth Blog

DECEMBER 29, 2016

I am taking a break at Grand Cafe Loos in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. My mind is spinning around as I try to defragment and reorganize the many experiences, images and memories that have made 2016 such a fascinating year. Its easy to pick out the large, juicy chunks, which have captivated most of us around the globe: political upheaval, geo-political instability, corporate scandals to name but a few.

Execution 214

Execution Trends Committee Politics 214

N2Growth Blog

AUGUST 1, 2016

10 Signs Your Company Culture Needs a Fix. There is little doubt that the best performing firms on the planet have exciting and healthy cultures – think Google, Southwest and Nike – while other organizations seem to be in a constant state of struggle to reach their full potential. Interestingly, the leadership teams at struggling companies are often confounded to understand the reasons for their firm’s “underperformance” Company culture is often to blame.

Company 184

Company Teamwork Commitment Learning-by-Doing 184

N2Growth Blog

AUGUST 19, 2016

I recently spent a couple of days in New York. It was hot and humid, so I didn’t think twice being offered a ride in an open bicycle cart from Central Park to my hotel, which was approximately a 15 minute ride. I asked the driver to take the scenic road and enjoyed a last glance of the beautiful park, which added another 35 minutes to my New York experience. “It’s 35 dollars sir’ or at least that is what I have heard.

Price 180

Price Morale Hotels Letter 180

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 194

Report Influence Short-term Long-term 194

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 175

Execution Committee Innovation Short-term 175

N2Growth Blog

JUNE 6, 2016

Organizational change is inevitable. Like all living things, it’s vital that organizations regularly adjust in order to accommodate the ebb and flow that goes on within the ecosystems in which they thrive. Every so often, though, a “Big Change” is needed to better position an organization for long-term success. In those times, proper preparation is required.

Organization 179

Organization Participative Project Long-term 179

N2Growth Blog

JULY 11, 2016

Self-directed learners, or autodidacts, possess the capability to chart their futures in ways that can give them an advantage over their less ambitious contemporaries. I should know, I am one! Back in the day, I didn’t have the Internet to support me. Yes, I did it the old fashioned way — I bought books and read them. It’s laughable by today’s standards, but, back in 1988, I spent countless hours in the New York City Library doing the research needed to complete my fir

How To 177

How To Learning-by-Doing Library Seminar 177