Hardwiring Accountability

Something is happening within many of the organizations.
And it’s troubling.
There are many incredibly sincere and well-intentioned managers. Supervisors whose need to be “nice” exceeds their organizational mandate for accountability. Leaders whose need to be liked inhibits them from acting upon their responsibility to establish, or maintain effective boundaries of accountability.
They are unwilling or unskilled at […]

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Where is Nebraska? It is due north of Dorthy’s home, and the “Wizard of Oz.”
And what a wonderful place it is.
People really care about each other in Nebraska.
Those providing service, be it in a grocery story or an attorney’s office really (no kidding) take the time necessary to genuinely listen. In Nebraska folks behave in […]

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During these difficult economic times everyone is feeling pressured. The climate within most workplaces is far from relaxed. This tension leads to an intensification of behaviors for toxic bosses — the yellers & screamers, control-freak micro managers, insecure nightmares. Here are some steps you can take to cope the problem manager:

Don’t take it personally! […]

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Have you been the recipient of poor service lately? If you haven’t you are clearly an exception…congratulations. I’ve been honored to work with many conscientious leaders who know how hard it is to earn loyal customers; and, how easy it is to lose them due to poor employee attitudes and organizational snafus. One of the reoccurring […]

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Overhead on the streets of New York City:
Panhandler:
“Do you have any change?”
Passerby:
“Change starts within.”
Yes, change starts from within and so does entitlement. I’ve had it with entitlement. I’ve had it with anyone, of any generation, regardless of age, with an entitlement mentality.  It you want it, make it happen for yourself. Stop relying on […]

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Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with many highly skilled professionals eager to leave the corporate rat-race and have more control and a better lifestyle coaching, training or consulting to organization’s in the organization development/effectiveness space.
Many of these talented and currently employed folks are looking to make the leap by arranging a […]

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From my experience, most strategic alliances and teaming done in the OD/OE space are temporary coalitions and suffer from a lack of commitment to building a company and brand that creates a durable and sustaining organization. In addition, two downsides of strategic alliances are equity and governance issues. Who owns the […]

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Recently Paul Brown at the New York Times wrote an article describing how failure isn’t always bad. No one is naturally good at everything they do all the time. In order to get better at anything in life, you have to continuously work at it. That means accepting that failure is part of life. It […]

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How do you build a culture of accountability?
To start we need to define accountability? To some, it’s something you make people do, as in making people accountable. Trying to “make” people do anything is a long term recipe for creative subversion. There are few systems known to humankind that can not be “worked around.” Ironically, […]

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Kelly Spors over at the Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article focusing on the importance of development plans for employees. Development plans are a great way to help employees realize you are focused on helping them achieve their goals. This leads to your employees feeling more valued and makes them less likely to seek […]

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