It's Time to Lead

Often, when organizations are trying to make change happen, it comes down to a couple of levers that they need to pull to start the motion.  It might be organizational structure, or process, or communication.  Almost always, it’s a combination of things that need to be addressed in order to cause change to happen.  But [...]

On last week’s post about bringing leaders onboard in your business more effectively, I received a question about how to hire the right leaders in the first place.  I have a few clients that I am working with to solve that issue as well, so it leads us to this week’s post on how to [...]

I was working with a company recently that was looking for a way to improve the success of the leaders they bring into the organization.  They had hired several senior executives only to watch them struggle and ultimately leave or be forced out within the first 18 months. What’s interesting is that the amount of [...]

I had never heard the term “burning platform” before.  Apparently it got used a lot in the company I was working with though.  The executive said that this new initiative was critical and so the team needed to create a “burning platform” to instill a sense of urgency in the business.  I found out later [...]

Several years ago I was working with a business leader in a new role and I was invited to attend the dinner where he would meet his new team for the first time.  It was one of those three-hour meals with way too many forks and I was amazed at the way the new executive [...]

I still learn about leadership every day.  In this challenging economic climate I’m learning faster than ever and often from people who might not be considered traditional leaders.  I’m learning from people who have lost their job. Their job represented the ability to feed their families, raise their kids the way they want, and achieve [...]

I can’t count the times I’ve heard the expression “survival mode” over the past year.  It seems like every company struggling due to the recession moves into “survival mode” as if they physically relocate the entire organization to a place where thinking past next month’s numbers will get you kicked off the island.  After all, [...]

I knew it would happen when I named the company 4th Gear Consulting. I get a lot of questions about the name and what it means and I enjoy answering them because it really is at the heart of what we are about. Many people assume that it’s about speed and while that’s certainly part [...]

I was talking with an executive the other day who works for a major corporation and like many companies, they have been going through several rounds of layoffs. He mentioned that he felt safer now, they had completed the cuts in his department and he had actually been promoted as a result of the belt [...]