Category Archives: Show Notes

Matthew Jensen – Fatal leadership flaws that undermine business execution

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 112:

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Matt Jensen, executive coach for Execufeed discusses fatal flaws that undermine the ability of leaders to motivate others to achieve business goals. A colleague of famed executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith, Matt describes negative leadership traits identified in the book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”.   He explains the critical role honest, candid feedback has on the success of leaders and draws on his experience in counseling psychology and organizational behavior to discuss four addictive behaviors that can result in catastrophic leadership failures.

Do you have what it takes to lead?  Are you sure?   Make sure you’ve got what it takes to be a fully effective leader by listening to Matt Jensen – this week on Business Execution Radio.

David Creelman – Optimizing employee performance through balancing creativity and consistency

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 111:

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David Creelman, CEO of Creelman Research discusses the conflict between the efficiency and quality improvements that come from standardizing work and the increased creativity and engagement that comes from allowing people to perform work in their own unique way.   Sharing research from the new book “Elements of Successful Organizations”, David illustrates how managers can maximize employee productivity simply by letting employees be themselves.   But he also notes that this sort of strengths-based, “be all you can be” type of management poses its own unique set of challenges.

Get some guidance on how to find the right balance between telling employees what to do simply just letting them be – this week on Business Execution Radio.

Joyce Maroney – Increasing performance and engagement of frontline, hourly employees

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 110:

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Joyce Maroney, Director of the Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc. discusses the unique nature of hourly jobs and how they tend to differ from salaried positions. Drawing on content from the recently published book “Elements of Successful Organizations”, she explores issues related to the use of social technology, workforce analytics, and employee engagement from the perspective of hourly workforces.

More than 50% of the workforce is employed in hourly positions, yet these jobs tend to get relatively little attention in talent management research. Gain insight into what it takes to get the most from your frontline employees – this week on Business Execution Radio.

Resources:

Workforce Institute Blog

Elements of Successful Organizations: Achieving Strong Leadership, Smart Management and an Engaged Workforce

Twitter: wf_institute

Per Scott – How Royal Bank of Canada uses engagement surveys to inform and drive business execution

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 109:

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Per Scott, Vice President of Human Resources for Royal bank of Canada (RBC) shares how RBC is taking engagement surveys to the next level to create a link between business strategies, employee beliefs, and financial outcomes. RBC goes beyond the typical engagement survey to look at critical factors impacting business strategies.  For example, determining if employees understand and believe in the value and effectiveness of new product lines, or differentiating between high and low performing managers.   He also shares enlightening observations around how being a baby boomer, gen X’er or millennial impacts employee job expectations.

Does engagement impact business execution:  absolutely!  Hear Per Scott explain how RBC has effectively integrated engagement metrics to improve business decision making – this week on Business Execution Radio.

Tim Szonyi – From strategy to action: aligning organizations to deliver on business goals

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 108:

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Tim Szonyi is a Partner at Mckinney Rogers, a global consulting company that helps organizations translate business strategies into tangible results.   Tim discusses the factors that are necessary to translate organizational strategies into actionable goals and “missions” understood and owned by employees across the company.   Some of the critical concepts he shares include what it means to be “mission driven” and the importance of creating an unbroken “narrative chain” that creates a connection between the corporate strategy and what employees  do each day in their jobs.

Gain valuable insight into what it takes to drive business execution by listening to someone who has done it with dozens of companies around the world – listen to Tim Szonyi this week on Business Execution Radio.

Marc Demerest – Leading knowledge intensive organizations under duress

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 107:

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Marc Demerest is CEO and Principal of Noumenal Inc., an international management consultancy providing strategic and operational consulting services primarily in the information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and energy markets. Marc explains the unique challenges associated with leading organizations that provide complex, technology enabled solutions to customers. Being successful in knowledge intensive markets requires the confidence and commitment of employees possessing scarce and critical intellectual capital. Leaders in these markets often make fundamental errors when their organizations encounter duress, whether it is stalled growth, market contraction, disruptive change, poor productivity, or simply not executing to plan.

Learn how to get the most from your intellectual capital and avoid errors such as the point & preach dysfunction, they are me fallacy, spin city problem, Chappaquiddick syndrome, or plethora of avenues. Effective methods for managing duress:  this week on Business Execution Radio.

Dan Finnigan – Getting the people you need to get the work done: social technology and staffing

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 106:

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Dan Finnigan is CEO of Jobvite, the leading recruiting platform for the social web. Dan explains how social technology is creating profound changes in methods used to find talent. Recruiting is no longer just for the staffing department. Every employee is now a potential recruiter. Leading edge companies are unleashing the power of employees’ personal networks by creating cultures where employees see bringing talent into the company as a way to support their organization by giving career opportunities to their colleagues.

In addition to general strategies for using social technology to find the best employees, Dan also shares some interesting research findings about which types of social technology tend to provide the best employees. Are better candidates typically found on Facebook, Linked-in, or Twitter?  Find out by listening to Dan Finnigan of Jobvite – this week on Business Execution Radio.

Resources:

Jobvite website

Social recruiting survey

Customer videos

Product tours

Todd Gentzel – Aligning strategic change, company culture, and leadership communication

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 105:

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Todd Gentzel is Chief Strategist for Yaffe-Deutser, a consulting firm specializing in alignment and integration of corporate strategy, culture, and communication.   Todd discusses common mistakes that undermine efforts to drive strategic change. This includes focusing too much attention on people who resist change, and not spending enough time with the majority of employees who are open to change provided they understand it. Todd also questions common change management beliefs such as the importance of having a “burning platform” or a charismatic change leader.

Any efforts to increase business execution ultimately require getting people to act differently in the future from how they acted in the past.    Get insights into how to make these changes happen – this week on Business Execution Radio.

Tony Beshara, Babich & Associates – Acquiring talent in a post-recession economy

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 104:

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Tony Beshara is owner and president of Babich & Associates, the oldest placement and recruitment service in Texas.  He is also author of several books for job seekers including “The job search solution”, “Acing the interview” and “Unbeatable resumes”.  Tony has experienced 5 recessions over the course of his career and he shares some common mistakes companies make rebuilding their workforce following an economic downturn.  His comments are particularly relevant to smaller businesses of 200 to 500 employees where a single hire (or missed hire) in a key position can have massive impacts on the company’s ability to execute is growth strategies.

Learn tips for balancing speed versus quality in hiring, who to involve in the interview process, and what actions every company should do right now to ensure it has the people it needs when it needs them, this week on Business Execution Radio.

François Ronai, Learning Strategist – Moving from traditional Learning Management Systems towards collaborative knowledge sharing technology

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Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 103:

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François Ronai is a Learning Strategist and Consultant who assists companies in developing technology-enabled learning and education solutions to build workforce skills and capabilities.  François discusses how the advent of social learning and collaborative technology is shifting the nature of learning technology systems.  Traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS) focus more on administrative tracking of course participation and certifications and less on actual knowledge sharing and acquisition.  But technological advances similar to popular sites such as YouTube or Facebook are now enabling companies to rapidly create online “communities of practice” to more effectively share knowledge within their organizations.

Get advice on how to accelerate learning and knowledge transfer within your organization from someone with 20 years experience in the field, this week on Business Execution Radio.