Articles in Home | Business Articles | Leadership Title|Newest|Oldest The Business Case for Happy Companies - Leadership  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Why do so many companies have uninspiring leaders and uninspired employees who plod along with little — or the wrong — motivation? Why are corporate decisions still being made for the short term, undermining morale and jeopardizing business success? Happiness is not a result, but a cause, of success. It’s key to fully realizing an organization’s “return on people” (ROP), which entails bringing out their best talents, strengths, passions, interests, knowledge and skills. ==== The Succession Solution: Apprenticeship Model  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. There’s something wrong with leadership development practices. Organizations are facing unprecedented challenges in finding successors for top jobs — and worse, so many leaders fail shortly after landing their positions. Directors, CEOs, HR executives and other business leaders have fared poorly at selecting and developing organizational leaders. They don’t seem to understand what makes a leader or what the job entails. They focus on the wrong people for the wrong reasons. ==== Judgment: Making Great Calls  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. What is the fundamental essence of leadership? Is it the ability to make consistently good judgment calls? Realistically, leaders are remembered for their best and worst judgment calls, especially when the stakes are high, information is limited and the correct call is far from obvious. In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty and conflicting demands, the quality of a leader’s judgment determines the entire organization’s fate. ------ The Costs of Ego - Leadership Category  By : Dr. Patsi Krakoff Fifty-three percent of businesspeople estimate ego costs their company 6 to 15 percent of annual revenue; 21 percent say this cost ranges from 16 to 20 percent. That’s somewhat astonishing, considering “ego” is difficult to measure by any standards. But even if ego accounts for only 6 percent of revenue, the annual “cost of ego” would translate to nearly $1.1 billion to the average Fortune 500 company — roughly equal to the average annual profit of these same companies. ==== Leadership Taboos: Exploring Credibility  By : Leaders do many things others couldn’t get away with and cannot understand. And each time a leader “gets away” with something, there’s an erosion of credibility. Leaders are charged with getting things done through others, so we allow them a great leeway. We expect our leaders to exert power, manipulate people and engage in political gamesmanship. Each time there’s a gap between what a leader says and does, credibility is undermined. Over time, it erodes followers’ desire to be influenced. ==== The Unspoken Taboos of Leadership: Exploring Charisma  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Leadership is messy — and not for everyone. It’s a contact sport, and people get hurt. Unfortunately, the subject remains poorly understood. We fail to discuss the importance of power, intelligence, self-centeredness, political gamesmanship, arrogance, competitive fire or manipulation — the unspoken leadership taboos. ---- The Leadership Void: The Problem That Isn't Going Away  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Most executives and HR specialists know a large percentage of baby boomers will retire over the next five to 10 years — and with them, 50% of the CEOs of major companies. But as with Hurricane Katrina, we see it coming and aren’t doing enough: We remain woefully unprepared. ==== Great Expectations: The Boss/Direct Report Tango  By : What should a leader expect from a direct report and what can the latter expect from the leader in return? When both parties have clear expectations, the relationship is smooth like a tango. If one person gets out of step, however, the ensuing relationship makes for discord. Here's a list of expectations that each can clarify with the other. ==== No More Jerks at Work: Preventing Desk Rage  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. It’s a sign of the times when a well-known Stanford professor and best-selling author publishes a book titled The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t (Warner Business Books, 2007). Certainly, everyone knows what Robert I. Sutton is talking about. We’ve all experienced the nastiness of a tormentor or unconstrained egomaniac who abuses power and intimidates others. Jerks do not go undetected for long. Raging maniacs are easy to catch and discipline. Good Boss, Bad Boss: 20 Bad Habits Leaders Should Stop Now  By : Almost all of us delude ourselves about our workplace achievements, status and contributions. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can certainly mislead us when we are told we need to change. It can be challenging for high-level executives to improve their interpersonal skills. We tend to believe the habits that have helped us rack up achievements in the past will continue to foster success in the future. But as the title of his recent book asserts, "What Got You Here Won’t Get You There," according to executive coach Marshall Goldsmith. === A Leadership Checklist: 7 Questions  By : No matter how successful and talented you are, you’ve made mistakes and have acquired some bad habits. Some are old; others have seemingly popped up overnight. Behaviors that may have worked well for you in the past can render you ineffective in the present. The best way to make swift adjustments is to periodically step back, observe and ask yourself several key questions. Some experts advise doing this every three to six months; much depends on the nature of your business. === How Do You Develop Leaders? Practice, Practice, Practice  By : Leadership isn’t just for leaders anymore. People at all levels are being asked to step up and assume leadership behaviors. Companies are investing millions of dollars annually in leadership development training to meet this challenge. Results are positive: Studies show companies that excel at developing leaders tend to achieve higher long-term profitability. But it seems there are as many approaches to leadership development as there are leadership developers. It is necessary to ask if any of this is working—and, if so, how? --- Managing Yourself: Are You Ready for a Coach?  By : The world of work is changing, and fast. Having a successful career means continually learning and adapting to rapidly evolving environments. You can’t do it alone. Coaching yourself is like the blind leading the blind: You can’t know what you don’t know -- Winning the War for Leadership Talent  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. The demand for leadership talent greatly exceeds supply. If economic growth continues at a modest 2 percent for the next 15 years, there would be a need for one-third more senior leaders than there are today. Most large companies will have to scramble to meet gaps in senior leadership talent. The global and more dynamic economy of the 21st century requires executive talent with a more complex skill set. This article examines the coming war for leadership talent. -- Leadership Power Stress: Creating Renewal  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Effective executives often find themselves caught in a cycle of stress and sacrifice, without any possibility or time for recovery or renewal. Most of those who make it to the top have proven track records for influencing others, getting teams to work together and achieving results. Yet even the most adept leaders end up experiencing "power stress." How can leaders learn to manage themselves and avoid falling into dissonance? -- Preventing Executive Burnout  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. The atmosphere at work has changed. The pace of change keeps accelerating. Today's managers are experiencing a whole new order of exhaustion. -- Making Strategy Everyone's Job  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. After years of reengineering, downsizing and optimizing operational efficiencies, companies are now focusing on new ways to generate distinctive competitive advantages. Strategic planning is back, but with a difference: it is no longer the domain of the CEO and senior executives. -- Executive Coaching Is Hot  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Driving the trend in executive coaching is the business reality which makes good staff hard to get and harder to keep. In the need for constant change to stay competitive, companies see coaching as a way to help valued employees develop swiftly in the changing business environment. -- Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Retaining Talented Employees  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Retaining key employees is still the number one problem for corporations. Even when there is a slower economy, attracting and holding top talent is a serious concern. After 20 years of down-sizing, it may seem ironic that corporations are now in a panic about losing employees. -- Generations at Work: Boomers, GenXers & Nexters  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Never before in the history of the workplace are so many different age groups working together in such close quarters. Veterans, Baby Boomers, GenXers and now the Nexters are working shoulder to shoulder, cubicle to cubicle. Never have so many different generations with such diversity in worldviews and work philosophies been asked to team up and work together. -- Creating a Climate of Innovation  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. An enterprise that does not innovate will not survive long. And management that does not learn to innovate and foster creativity will not last long. -- Getting the Most out of Executive Coaching  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. When used for the right reasons and with competent practitioners, executive coaching can provide significant and lasting benefits for both individuals and organizations. But like other innovations, coaching is in danger of becoming just another business fad. When not effective, it can cause harm to individuals and organizations and waste large amounts of money. -- Sustaining Results: Balancing People, Values and Business  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. In the last few years several books have addressed why some companies are more enduring than others. What distinguishes the great from the merely good? -- Leadership: Facing Moral and Ethical Dilemmas  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. In 2001 in the U.S. alone, 257 public companies with $258 billion in assets declared bankruptcy. This was a huge increase over the previous year's record of 176 companies with $95 billion. -- Survival of the Fittest: Feedback is not for Sissies  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. In order to be persistently successful, people and organizations need to adapt continually to their environment. This requires information from the environment. The more open the feedback loops, the more effective the adaptation and change can be. Few leaders have truly open and honest feedback within their organizations -- Creating an Execution Culture – A Leader’s Most Important Job  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. In the year 2000 alone, forty CEOs of the top 200 companies on Fortune’s 500 list were removed – fired or made to resign. When 20 percent of the most powerful business leaders lose their jobs, something is clearly wrong. -- Flipping the Coin for Talent: How Well are You Hiring?  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Everyone agrees that talent is an important competitive advantage, but surprisingly, three out of four companies do not have a priority talent management program. Hiring processes are often random and decisions based on intuition. In many cases, hiring decisions have success rates similar to flipping a coin! -- Understanding Basic Human Behaviors at Work: What Drives You?  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. One of the earliest studies of human behavior at work was done at AT&T's Western Electric Hawthorne Plant from 1927 to 1932 by Harvard's Elton Mayo. Their principle findings are still relevant today: when workers have an opportunity to contribute their thinking and learning to workplace issues, their job performance improves. -- Leadership Coaching for Results  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Many attempts have been made over the past decade to quantify return on investment of coaching programs for executives in organizations. This article examines studies of ROI on coaching in organizations. -- Leadership Coaching for Behavioral Change  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. How do you get leaders to change? How do you optimize their talents and potential? What are best practices of executive coaching programs that produce lasting results in effective leadership behaviors that drive business results? -- The Case for Clarity: A Key Leadership Quality  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. There’s a lot to be said for clarity and simplicity. When executives at the top make short, clear statements about their defined customers, core strengths, desired future and action plans, they prevent employee confusion and anxiety. They create confidence throughout the organization and replace uncertainty with resilience and creativity. In fact, clarity may be the most essential quality for leading large groups of diverse employees to a desired future. -- Where Have All the Good Managers Gone?  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Nobody aspires to being a good manager these days. So much attention and resources are devoted leadership development, and everyone wants to be a great leader. Yet leaders all have to manage people. The separation of management from leadership is dangerous. Leading without good management results in a failure to execute. Let’s get back to good, strong managing. But what does that mean? -- Managing with Emotional Intelligence: Developing Empathy  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. The business community has embraced the concept of emotional intelligence and its importance ever since Daniel Goleman's best-selling book, Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998). But the challenge is to demonstrate that such competencies can be acquired and when they are, that they significantly impact employee performance. -- Are You Ready for the Future?  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Is your organization looking forward, or is it focused on the problems of the present and immediate short-term competition? -- A Winning Team in the First 90 Days  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Assessing a team—deciding who should stay and who should go—is one of the most critical tasks an executive faces when transitioning into a new position. It can create or destroy leverage—and leadership is ultimately about leverage. -- Leadership Personality: Do You Have the Right Big Five Traits?  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. How well do you understand basic personality differences among the people at work? Knowledge of personality structure, dynamics and development is helpful to your: 1. Personal professional development 2. Relationships with associates 3. Relationships with superiors and the organization in general The bottom line is performance. Whether you are working in a team, leading a department, or selling a service or product, the way you communicate and persuade is critical to your personal success and Leadership in Times of Uncertainty: Back to Basics  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. In the wake of tragedy, leaders are faced with challenges that stretch their abilities and skills. In this global economy of rapid change and increasing complexity, many leaders struggle to lead their companies in the right direction. Now, more than ever, there is increased uncertainty, more complexity, and more chaos. -- Personality Types in Executives: What Works  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is one of the most frequently used self-report assessment tools in management and leadership development programs around the world. It is used in leadership development, team-building, communications training and executive coaching. -- Sustaining Results: Balancing People, Values and Business  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. In the last few years several books have addressed why some companies are more enduring than others. What distinguishes the great from the merely good? -- Follow the Leader? It's a new game!  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Organizations are successful or not partly on the basis of how well their leaders lead, but also in great part on the basis of how well their followers follow. What is the role of the follower and how does it affect leadership behavior? How can members of the executive team participate more effectively to create a truly dynamic partnership relationship with their leader? -- A Leadership Map for the Future  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Predictions for the future can be stimulating and challenging, especially if one is a top executive in a business enterprise attempting to make strategic decisions. Our rapidly changing global environment presents problems never before encountered. No one knows what will be required of leaders in the future, but some speculation is worthy of our attention. -- Understanding Executive Failure  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. CEOs are now lasting just 7.6 years in office on a global average, down from 9.5 years in 1995, according to consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. Two out of every five new CEOs fail in the first 18 months (HBR, January 2005). -- Values-Centered Leadership: Walking the Talk  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. All organizations have a mission statement and a set of values or guiding principles. They include such items as Integrity, Customer Service, Quality, Respect, High Performance, Teamwork, Leadership, and Innovation. Often these words are prominently displayed on plaques, posters, laminated cards, and even screen savers. -- Rethinking the Future: Leadership for the 21st Century  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. The industrial age of business was a system that operated with linearity & logic. This is giving way to new forms of outsourcing, minimization of scale, an emphasis on profit centers, networks and other forms of organization. When an old paradigm crumbles, we experience frequent bursts of creative thinking. Accompanying this is an equivalent degree of chaos and confusion, with feelings of uncertainty. This article examines leadertship for the 21st century & preparing for the future. -- Leadership by Persuasion  By : Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. As a leader, your success depends upon your ability to get things done: up, down and across all lines. To survive and succeed, you must learn to persuade people: to convince them to take action on your behalf and under your direction, often without formal authority. Persuasion is widely perceived as a skill reserved for sales & negotiation. Now, it’s an essential proficiency for all leaders. You must make a rational argument, and also frame your ideas in ways that appeal to emotions. --	Customized Newsletter Services: All-in-One Ezine Services, How to Broadcast Your Ezine, 25 Proven Ways to Grow Your Ezine List - click on this link. 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