Shaping the Corporate Culture
Uber and Out
Culture Trumps Everything Yes, culture trumps everything AND . . . money still talks. On Tuesday, 6/20/17, Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber resigned, as CEO. He had taken a leave of absence the week prior, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy those wanting to protect their investment in Uber. So, while Kalanick will remain […]
Once Again, Banks Violate Our Trust . . .
Leadership Owns This Scandal And just where was (is) the leadership at Wells Fargo in this ethical failure? What kind of culture would lead an employee to even consider falsifying emails, establishing unauthorized accounts, issuing unauthorized credit/debit cards, collecting fraudulent fees and impacting customers’ credit scores? How can customers ever trust Wells Fargo again. Full […]
Book Review: The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni
In his usual engaging style, Patrick Lencioni has expanded on his previous book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, to show us how to make sure we find the ideal team player for our next hire. Through a parable he shows us how to recognize and cultivate the three essential virtues named as humble, hungry […]
Book Review: Everybody Matters by Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia
I am grateful that I had Chapman’s book “on the shelf” (in the electronic reader) to read. I had just finished Jeffrey Pfeffer’s book, Leadership BS, and was pretty down based on what I had read. What a delight and contrast, to pick up Chapman’s and Sisodia’s book. It has renewed my faith in human […]
I’ve Got Your 6
I don’t remember now where I first heard this phrase. It was a long time ago though. I remember figuring out what it meant from the context in which I heard it. Recently, I heard it again but the context wasn’t quite as obvious and so I wanted to be sure I was right about […]
Slightly More Than A Business
There are a lot of words spoken, ink spilled and brain cycles expended on the concept of culture in a business. The topic is important because, as we all know, culture trumps procedures every time. It doesn’t matter what the Policy and Procedure manuals say, people do what is expected by and acceptable in the […]
Book Review: Failure; The Secret to Success by Robby Slaughter
The topic of failing as a path to success is not new. It is almost cliche these days that we “need to fail forward faster.” And Robby Slaughter has done a fine job of building a compendium of both famous and not so well known examples of how failure and persistence has led to success […]
Systems Thinking and Trust
I use the term “systems thinking” frequently and I’m quite sure it isn’t always clear what I actually mean when I use that phrase. There are various levels of “systems thinking.” On a very large scale, we are learning more and more about how interdependent life is here on earth. No change, regardless of how […]
What about sales?
Shocked and disoriented is probably the best way to describe how companies and salespeople are feeling lately. Virtually everyone is husbanding cash. Nobody wants to be “sold” anything. People still want to buy, but only when and what they want, not what someone else wants them to buy. And they don’t really need salespeople; they can […]
Superb Quality Control is Expected
Some companies, perhaps many, have decreed that there be NO quality control department. Their reasoning is that if there is some department that is responsible for quality control, then people might just “leave things up to them,” believing that quality control is not their issue. Instead, those companies impress upon workers, managers, and executives that […]
