Are your Twenty-Something Employees Full of $%^& I received a call from a client asking if there was something wrong with PsybilⓇ, our assessment system. He had just assessed a set of candidates and 7 of the 8 had self-deception scores higher than the 80th percentile. After making sure our system was working, I called … Read More
Solve Problems, Make Inspired Decisions by Understanding your Thinking Biases
It’s astonishing how many smart business leaders struggle with solving problems. We don’t mean these leaders are indecisive or complacent — far from it. In fact, in some cases, leaders make decisions too quickly, with an incomplete data set and/or inaccurate assumptions; in other cases they hesitate to decide, lacking a clear decision-making process. Just … Read More
How Unconscious Bias Creates a Conflict of Interest
The Unintentionally Unethical and Biased Employee — I believe that most people try to do the right thing most of the time. If they make a commitment, they try to keep it. When they have to choose between an organization’s best interests and their own, they often err in favor of the organization. We see … Read More
Achievement Drive: The Leader’s Guilty Secret
With a cumulative 100 years or so of assessment, coaching, and consulting under our belts, we have discovered that nearly every executive-level leader carries with them a “guilty secret.” Sounds juicy, doesn’t it? In the news over the past few years, some have been found to have purchased millions of dollars of art through their … Read More
Selecting the Right Organizational Consulting Partner
Years ago, as a senior consultant in a blue chip consultancy, I witnessed one of the most revealing conversations between my firm’s senior partner and our client, the SVP of HR for a high profile aerospace manufacturer. My firm was billing the client roughly $11M a year. The client was in complete disarray, with a … Read More
Leadership Development: Necessary AND Sufficient Components that Catalyze Leaders’ Performance
Employees, stakeholders and executives alike have high expectations of their leaders. Unfortunately few leaders are born perfect; most have to work hard at getting there. And along the way they may discover some significant gaps. He/She is Great…but…. As consultants we are often asked to advise on how to improve a leader’s performance. The conversation … Read More