What to Do When You Fear Your Leadership Is Failing

By Les McKeown

You’re a good leader, and you don’t take the possibility of failure lightly. You realistically assess the possibility of failure in advance of any new initiative. You’ve set clear milestones that will help alert you when something is going off track. You’re accountable for evaluating the relevant data accordingly, and you don’t blanch at objectively assessing the situation.

Now, (gulp), something has indeed gone wrong. Your new product launch has flopped, perhaps, or the fire marshal has just handed you a list of code violations that means the hospice won’t open on time, or your team of anti-logging activists hasn’t received the visas they need to go on-site in Venezuela. Continue reading

First Step Toward Life Balance: Tame Your Ego

by Gayle Hilgendorff

My first book is due out next year.  It is a book about work/life balance, though at risk of giving away the punch line, the book is really about living IN balance rather than desperately seeking a balance between your work and the rest of your life.  As my editor and I were finalizing a chapter this week, one of the sub-chapters caught my attention.  I want to share a piece of that sub-chapter with you this week because the topic is one that I think we need to all need to slap ourselves in the face with more often. Continue reading

8 Ways To Spot Great Leadership

By Mike Myatt,

If you ever wonder why we’re in a crisis of leadership all you have to do is to watch and listen to those in positions of leadership. While there are clearly many aspects of leadership that must work together in harmony in order for leaders to be effective, everything breaks down when leaders don’t understand how to engage effectively.

Let’s start with what leadership is not: Leadership is not a monologue, a speech, a lecture or a filibuster. Leadership is not talking at or over people. Leadership is not sequestered, does not live in a bubble or operate in a vacuum. Leadership is not exclusive or arrogant. Leadership is not about the leader. Continue reading

10 Reasons to Focus Your Workforce on Value of Teamwork

By Laura Stack

There’s no ‘I’ in team, but there is in win.” — Michael Jordan, retired American basketball star.

Those of us who gravitate toward leadership in business organizations — or create our own businesses as entrepreneurs — tend to be the independent sort. It seems ironic, then, that we achieve our highest levels of productivity only when we come together as teams.

The fact remains that human beings are social creatures. We couldn’t have been otherwise and risen to become this planet’s dominant species. Continue reading

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder-with Manish Sharma

It’s literal meaning – the perception of beauty is subjective.

At ISSG, we’re curious to know how this proverb applies to executives as they look to bring in new talent – and think you might be too!  This the first in a series of blogs/interviews with Senior Executives who are thought leaders in the areas of Talent Acquisition, Career Development and Leadership.

Our initial discussion was with Manish Sharma. Manish is the Accenture BusinessProcess Outsourcing (BPO) Delivery and Solution Development Lead, heading up BPO Global Delivery operations, solutions and mobilization. In this role, he leads over 55,000 professionals in more than 50 delivery centers across five continents. He also serves as a member of Accenture’s Global Leadership Council.  Continue reading