Tag Archives: Communication

The best of both worlds – how to brew a blended culture

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by Ravi Saligram

Building and maintaining a high-performance work culture can be a test of wills and expectations even within a tightly knit organization. Those efforts and struggles only deepen within the context of a corporate merger or acquisition where it takes vision, fortitude (and a solid dose of humility) to orchestrate the movements of two cultures into one.

I’ve orchestrated a number of acquisitions over the years and have found that assessing a target’s culture and planning for cultural integration is an often undervalued dynamic. Typically, culture is not given the same level of importance in M&A due diligence as financials, growth drivers, synergies and valuation models. We focus on the things that are crunchy and tangible, so the human factor is left out of the equation. It isn’t until we get into integration that we see the intense effect culture has on the short-term gains and long-term success of the new organization. Continue reading →

Do you need to broaden your leadership repertoire?

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By Bonnie W. Gwin, Ryan Pastrovich and Jeff Sanders

Among chief executives today two distinct styles of leadership predominate—each with characteristic strengths and weaknesses that have significant ramifications for company performance in various business situations.

Our firm conducted research involving more than 20,000 senior executives—including more than 1,600 CEOs—across a wide range of industries around the world. In the course of the research we identified eight statistically distinct leadership styles or “signatures” (See sidebar “The Eight Leadership Signatures).

Each style has strengths and weaknesses, but no one style is “right” or “wrong” and all styles can be equally effective. Individuals tend to have some degree of access to all the styles, and self-aware or well-coached executive can learn to flex to additional styles when appropriate. The challenge arises when leaders continue to resort to a style less suitable under changed conditions.

On average, CEOs in our research scored highest on Forecaster attributes, followed by Provider attributes. Chief executives scored lowest on Composer attributes, which is not surprising given that Composers tend to prefer working independently. What is perhaps surprising is that the Pilot style—strategic and visionary—ranks only sixth for CEOs. Continue reading →

Why you need to pay attention to Gen X leaders

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By Gwen Moran

Members of Generation X (typically defined as born between 1965 and 1981) are used to being in the shadow of the massive generations that came before and after them. Baby boomers and millennials tend to get the lion’s share of attention as far as demographic groups go. And, of course, the novelty of emerging generation Z is capturing a few headlines as well.

“It’s kind of been the neglected or overlooked generation in a lot of ways,” says Stephanie Neal, a research scientist in Development Directions International’s (DDI’s) Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research (CABER). But their growing influence and unique attributes are worthy of more attention, she says.

Neal says that gen X leaders now hold more than half (51%) of leadership roles globally. And new DDI research shows a wealth of attributes—including tech-adept, loyal, and committed to development—make them especially valuable to the companies that employ them. Continue reading →

What does real leadership look like?

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by Jill Griffin

I was at dinner recently with some friends and out of the blue, one of my dinner companions asked a compelling question: If something dangerous happened here in this restaurant, who do you think would step up and lead us out of here to safety?

Companies all across the globe are asking a similar question every day. If we want to go somewhere, if we want to be successful, who can we count on to step up and take us there? An endless stream of studies have been conducted, libraries of books have been written, and yet leadership still seems to be a bit of a mystery.

Can leadership be taught or is it a talent we are born with? Most companies have some kind of assessment that you have to pass to be moved into leadership. That seems democratic — anybody can take the test and so that means theoretically that anybody could pass it. This avoids the good old boy network— no more getting the job because of who you know. At least in theory, that’s how it works. And the chances of finding the right person should be better with some science sprinkled into the process. Continue reading →

A neglected but essential leadership trait — why self-control really matters

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By Prudy Gourguechon

Boiled down to its essence, self-control is the ability to think before acting. Self-control, or discipline, is an essential character trait that every leader with heavy responsibilities must have.

Nevertheless, self-control rarely shows up on any list of the essential traits that make a good leader (with the notable exception of Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence). Vision, passion, communication skills, decisiveness, confidence, clarity, even empathy all pop up regularly on these popular lists, but not self-control. The explanation for the neglect of self-control and discipline? Consideration of leadership qualities tends to look at behavior and results rather than character or fundamental psychological capacities.

While the corporate world tends to ignore self-control, professional investors study and value it. Seasoned investors know they are prone to mistakes in judgment when emotion overrides rational decision-making. They also know this can and will happen to all of them. They remain vigilant and search for ways to prevent emotion-driven mistakes including “jumping on the bandwagon,” reacting out of fear or excessive caution or being unduly influenced by greed or envy. I am a fan of the television series Billions, which in one way can be seen as one long meditation on self-control. For both of the show’s protagonists, Bobby Axelrod and Chuck Rhoades, self-control is their greatest asset. And losing control leads to their ultimate undoing. Continue reading →