Elegant and Efficient In 1947 on the heels of the Allies’ victory, organizational theorists adopted Max Weber’s bureaucracy ideas from the 1920’s and gave birth to the modern hierarchical organizational structure. Inspired by the military, this paradigm would lead the United States and other capitalist countries into an age of productivity that the world had … Read More
The Fall of Trust
Stephen M. R. Covey claimed in his book, The Speed of Trust, that trust is “the one thing that changes everything” – if removed, it can destroy the most thriving economy, the most powerful government, the most successful business, and the most influential leadership. Business Replaced Government as Most Trusted Institution For 20 years, Edelman … Read More
The Core of a True Leader
In the hope of figuring out how to treat families, one of the most innovative and iconoclastic psychologists, Murray Bowen, discovered the core of a leader a decade before anyone mentioned emotional intelligence. As technology has given us greater access to how the brain functions, scientists have found even more support for this theory. In … Read More
Heroes Cannot be Leaders
–While in the role of a hero, one cannot be a leader; while in the role of a leader, one makes heroes of others.– In a society where leaders and heroes are revered, the above statement may startle you. However, the term heroic leader is an oxymoron. In 2020, the Philadelphia newspapers referred to football … Read More
Are High Scores of Self- Deception on Pre-Hire Assessments More Common Among Young People?
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