How Leaders Shape Culture without the Fluff
One of the surest ways to burn money is to invest in a culture initiative. Culture often gets treated as something that can be improved…
All you Need is Love – Values that Work
I challenge you to play a game of buzzword bingo with me. Take out a pen and paper and write down the first ten positively…
10 uncomfortable truths every leader should read
When you’ve been around long enough, you see patterns in behavior, individual and organizational. And you hear people say things, and repeat them again and…
Why ELTs struggle to focus on strategy and how to overcome It
Executive Leadership Teams (ELTs) often find it challenging to shift gears, from day-to-day operations to long-term strategy. This brings a number of challenges, the most…
Aligning Employees on Strategy – The Art of Strategic Dialogues
Why do strategies fail? Apart from making wrong choices, one topic stands out: failure to engage teams and help them understand a new strategy. Strategy…
Avoiding the Tyranny of the Urgent – The Power of Strategy Governance
“Here we go again.” This was my initial thought when a client was reluctant to establish structures for strategy implementation. I had seen similar hesitation before…
Great Teams Create Great Strategy. But Most Teams aren’t Teams.
Think about strategy conversations as a seed. And think about your team environment as soil. If the seed falls on toxic or infertile soil, and…
Vision or no Vision – The Art of Storytelling in Strategy
When it comes to designing strategy, I often see two approaches collide. Vision-driven strategy versus problem-driven strategy. Vision-driven strategy starts with describing a desired status…
How Strategic Leadership Development Creates RoI
Developing effective leaders is a critical component of any successful organization. But simply training individuals in leadership skills doesn’t cut it. For maximum impact –…
Dog Eat Dog and Tree Huggers: Why the Wrong Environments Can’t Create Good Strategy
The environment in which we design strategy matters more than leaders often realize. The leadership culture, and the wider business culture, dictate the nature of…
Two Must-Have Resources To Design More Impactful Strategy
Two approaches have proven particularly effective to start aligning leadership teams at the beginning of a strategy and identity process: Combining a 360-degree feedback and…
The Fish Stinks from its Head: When Boards of Directors Cause More Harm Than Good
The fish stinks from its head. A sentence describing that issues in a business can usually be traced back to the executive table. And that’s…
The Essence of Executive Leadership: Nailing Business Strategy and Culture
What’s the job of an executive leader? So many thoughts come to mind. But in a nutshell it comes down two two things: they’ve got…
Operational Scalability: How To Set Up Systems, Procedures, And People To Prepare A Business To Scale
This is an excerpt from an interview with Alex Brueckmann that was first published by Authority Magazine – read the full interview here. In order…
What Wayne Gretzky Teaches Executives About Strategy
Wayne Gretzky, often hailed as the greatest hockey player of all time, holds a legacy that transcends the rink. Beyond his exceptional skills on the…
Overcoming Doubts: 7 Challenges Leaders Face with Business Strategy
Leadership demands not only vision but the confidence to act on that vision. Yet, many leaders find themselves wrestling with doubt, which can hinder their…
Designing a Business Strategy – Between Foresight and Signalling
A business strategy typically addresses a mid-term time horizon of three to five years. Businesses should also explore what lies before and beyond this timeframe. To…
How to Solve Your Company’s Communication Issue
When a client had just completed a merger, they were shooting for the top spot in the market. While the physical aspects of the merger,…
Building People Skills Is No Longer Enough
Executive Summary: The dangers of neglecting strategic skills in leadership development Leadership development programs have long been mainly about so-called soft skills. Participants learned how…
From $1mn to $100mn: The Top 5 Barriers That High-Growth Companies Need to Overcome
Scaling a high-growth startup from $1million to a lofty 100 million is a monumental achievement. The path to such exponential growth is riddled with numerous…
Busting Business Myths: Four Misconceptions That You Should Let Go
Business myths are often perpetuated and become widely accepted as truth, despite being far from accurate. Let’s debunk four common myths: that work-life balance as…
Nurturing Success: The Dynamic Dance Between Strategy and Culture
In the wild world of business, catchphrases run rampant, sparking debates and raising eyebrows. One such catchphrase that tends to get a reaction out of…
Empowerment: 5 Common Misconceptions We Should Leave Behind
Everyone talks about it, everyone wants it, but not everyone understands it. Empowerment has become a buzzword in the world of organizational management. Empowerment is…
Why the Most Accomplished Leaders Work with Executive Coaches
Even the world’s top athletes know that they can’t do it alone. They work with coaches who aren’t necessarily better at their sport, but are…
Linking Leadership Development to Business Strategy: How it Boosts Performance, Engagement, and Talent Management
Developing effective leaders is a critical component of any successful organization. But simply training individuals in leadership skills is not enough. For maximum impact, executive…
3+1 Essential Success Skills Every Business Leader Should Master
Leading a business can be an exciting and overwhelming experience. To create a thriving business and build a fulfilling life, there are some critical skills…
5 Telltale Signs Your Business Needs a Board of Directors – Even if it’s Not Required by Law
As a business owner, you’re always looking for ways to make your business better, stronger, and more successful. One important step in this journey is…
Accelerating Growth: The Benefits of Installing a Board of Directors for SMEs
Running a small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) can be challenging, especially in today’s fast-paced business environment. One way that SMEs can improve their chances of…
The Danger of CEO/Chairs: Why Companies Should Separate These Key Roles
Proponents of separating the CEO and Board Chair roles argue that enterprise companies need strong governance to effectively manage risk and make informed decisions. An…
Maximizing Financial Success in Crisis: The Benefits of Investing in a Business Strategy
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are particularly vulnerable to financial challenges during times of crisis. To weather these storms and come out on top, SMEs…