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leadership challenge

Leadership Challenge: Change Management Success Factors

October 24, 2013 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

We see study after study talking about what are those magical three elements that are going to magically make your leadership challenge of change initiatives successful.  What are those top three things that could be considered Change Management Success Factors? In our minds, they are:

  1. Leaders – Leaders sponsor and champion the change effort. Leaders are behind change management publicly.  Leaders are behind the change initiative in their communications, in their actions and in their behaviors. Leaders are out in front championing the change.
  2. Vision – A clear and compelling vision and case for change, and a strong communication plan in place behind that change management vision. People anymore are not like sheep going off to do their job.  People today are interested in knowing that what they do is in service of the greater good of the company. That means that in any change management initiative, a leader is going to have to stand up and have a clear and compelling case for who are we, what are we about, and why are we doing this.
  3. Engagement – So if you have leaders standing up and saying “This is why we’re doing this… This is what we’re doing… This is how you can be a part of this journey” this will invite people to come and be a part of the change.

That engagement becomes the platform, along with leadership alignment and the clear case for change that really becomes the platform for making change stick at the end of the day. When it’s all said and done, change that sticks and achieves desired results is what you should be after (No magic there, right?)

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: change, change initiative, change management, change management success, engagement, leader, leadership alignment, leadership challenge, making change stick, vision

The Leadership Challenge: Conquering Alibis

September 16, 2013 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

John was a C-suite leader that had been recommended to us by his board of directors for a coaching engagement (Centered Executive Coaching: Leader Centered Coaching program) and participate in The Leadership Challenge development program.  The company he belonged to was growing at a +25% annual growth rate, but John’s area of the company was coming in short (<10%).  While John had many of the same talented people in his department (The organization had a cross-functional organization chart, allowing them to share team members based on assignment), leadership was looking for improvement out of John.

In our first initial interview, where we determine alignment of the coaching initiative as well as outline future steps, John was shall we say a little “defensive” of his performance thus far for the year. In fact, John was downright full of excuses when it came to his performance.  It appeared as though it was everyone but John’s fault for the department’s lack of performance.

With this lack of performance in mind, and John’s lack to accept responsibility, we provided him with an exercise on alibis. Here is a list of the most commonly used alibis we presented to him. Our instructions were for him to read the list, and examine himself carefully for each item and determine how many of these alibis were his own property (ownership):

  • IF I didn’t have a wife and family…
  • IF I had enough “pull”…
  • IF I had money…
  • IF I had a good education…
  • IF I could get a job…
  • IF I had good health…
  • IF I only had time…
  • IF times were better…
  • IF other people understood me…
  • IF Conditions around me were only different…
  • IF I could live my life over again…
  • IF I did not fear what “they” would say…
  • IF I had been given a chance…
  • IF I now had a chance…
  • IF other people didn’t “have it in for me”…
  • IF nothing happens to stop me…
  • IF I were only younger…
  • IF I could only do what I want…
  • IF I had been born rich…
  • IF I could meet “the right people”…
  • IF I had the talent that some people have…
  • IF I dared assert myself…
  • IF I only had embraced past opportunities…
  • IF people didn’t get on my nerves…
  • IF I didn’t have to keep house and look after the children…
  • IF I could save some money…
  • IF the boss only appreciated me…
  • IF I only had somebody to help me…
  • IF my family understood me…
  • IF I lived in a big city…
  • IF I could just get started…
  • IF I were only free…
  • IF I had the personality of some people…
  • IF I were not so fat…
  • IF my talents were known…
  • IF I could just get a “break”…
  • IF I could only get out of debt…
  • IF I hadn’t failed…
  • IF I only knew how…
  • IF everybody didn’t oppose me…
  • IF I didn’t have so many worries…
  • IF I could marry the right person…
  • IF people weren’t so dumb…
  • IF my family were not so extravagant…
  • IF I were sure of myself…
  • IF luck were not against me…
  • IF I had not been born under the wrong star…
  • If it were not true that “what is to be will be”…
  • IF I did not have to work so hard…
  • IF I hadn’t lost my money…
  • IF I lived in a different neighborhood…
  • IF I didn’t have a “past”…
  • IF I only had a business of my own…
  • IF other people would only listen to me…
  • IF *** and this is the greatest of them all ***

If this list looks familiar to you, you may have seen a version of it in the classic “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.  The list is tucked away in the back of the book, in a section that is must reading for any leader titled “How to Outwit the Six Ghosts of Fear.”

John came away from the exercise realizing that while many of his alibis were professional in nature, those that were truly holding him back were his personal ones.  A modification therein allowed him to move closer to established goals.

What’s the Point? Analyze your weaknesses and overcome them, instead of building alibis to cover them.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: alibis, centered executive coaching, executive coach, executive coaching, leader, leader centered coaching, leadership, leadership challenge, napoleon hill, think and grow rich, weaknesses

The Leadership Challenge: Where to Focus?

September 9, 2013 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

At Tip of the Spear, we’re certified through the Leadership Challenge as Executive Coaches.  If you’re familiar with the Leadership Challenge by Kouzes/Posner, you know that there are five (5) practices of leadership that could be looked upon as “universal truths” when it comes to successful practices as a leader (If you’re not familiar with the Leadership Challenge, here’s where you can find out more information: http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/home.aspx).

As Executive Coaches, we’re often asked “Where do you see leaders spending the majority of the time?” In other words, where do leaders focus to maximize their results?  We’re interested in hearing your feedback, so we created the following poll:

CLICK HERE

Please share your perspective with us.  At the end of the study we’ll share the responses gathered to help provide feedback on the Leadership Challenge at hand: Where to Focus?

What’s the Point?

If you don’t focus on a target, odds are you won’t hit it.  Focus is the key to achieving results!

 

The Leadership Challenge: Where to Focus?

The Leadership Challenge

 

 

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: executive coaches, leader, leadership, leadership challenge, tip of the spear

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