As I write this, it is four days prior to Black Friday, long considered the kick-off to the start of the retail industry’s crucial holiday shopping season. Every year, Black Friday starts earlier. Now, Thanksgiving Day is the new Black Friday. Many retail chains have announced plans to open at some point on Thanksgiving Day…
4 Roles Every Project Team Needs
Over at the HBR Blog Network author Michael Schrage says that CEO’s should assign their top creative thinkers to fix up the organization’s most boring and ineffective processes. He says that this shift in thinking—putting the brightest employees on the “most trivial/scut work” projects will send a powerful signal to the organization: “Improving efficiency and…
Book Review: The New Leaders’ 100-Day Action Plan
Thinking of taking on a bigger leadership role, either inside your company or with a new one? Chances are you already know that getting a strong start is critical to your success. You may be surprised to know exactly just how early a start you need to get. According to authors George Bradt, Jayme Check…
Leadership Development Carnival – November 2011
The November Leadership Development Carnival is up at Dan McCarthy’s Great Leadership blog. No theme this month, just a straight-up presentation of 45 great essays on leadership. Go on over to the carnival to see how leaders can be both bold and humble, 5 reasons for leaders to engage in social media and letting go…
Tag-Team Workplace Coaching
Sometimes, a person’s boss just isn’t the right person to do the coaching. Consider this story, as told to me by my client Pete: Pete was part of a new product ideation team tasked with creating a proposal for the company president. On the day of Big Presentation to the president Liz, the team gathered…