PrimeGenesis Blog
Paul Callahan Wins the Match Race Inside the Fleet Race to Go Back to the Olympics
Paul Callahan won the Olympic trails this past weekend and will represent the USA again in the Paralympic Sonar class in the UK this upcoming summer. I previously talked about Paul in an article on Forbes.com on how Positive Misdirection...
Thorsten Heins’ New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan as CEO of RIM (Blackberry)
Image via Wikipedia RIM/Blackberry's shareholders and customers should be scared. They are watching a train wreck happen in slow motion. This is a company that is in trouble. It has been out-innovated by its competitors. It has...
Why RIM’s New CEO Needs to Change the Platform for Change
Getting promoted from within is often trickier than is readily apparent. Getting promoted from within during a turn-around is far trickier still. It’s important to strike the right balance between continuity and change. With that in mind,...
Merging Cultures Post-Acquisition at Fujitsu America
Doye was helped by the team’s general consensus that one of the new hires was not fitting culturally. Moving on that new hire was step one. From there, Doye changed out sales leadership and strengthened the strategy, applications and infrastructure teams.
Eighteen months in, five of the original executive team members are still in position. Two are still there, but in new positions. There are two on the team that came from other Fujitsu companies and four are brand new. As Doye puts it
Now we are starting to gel. People know their role, their market, and are adding greater value. The matrix is starting to work. We have energy and passion. Yes, challenges too. What is different is that we have raised the bar and expectations in a few places and all boats are rising!!
What Doye did that was particularly strong was developing a plan that took into consideration both the culture of the parent company and the local workplace. He moved fast and then adjusted as appropriate along the way.
How Leaders’ Communication Styles Impact the Delivery of Results
I recently asked acoustics expert David Greenberg what the greatest concert hall is. He quickly replied, “For what?” He went on to explain that different venues are better for certain types of performances. When you think about the best way to communicate...
Onboarding as an Individual Contributor
Both leaders and individual contributors build teams by inspiring and enabling others. Individual contributors need to rely even more heavily on influencing skills across the five building blocks of a high performing team:
Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson’s New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan
Sometimes new leaders can take their time onboarding into new positions. Sometimes new leaders start new jobs as if they’re jumping onboard moving trains and must accelerate just to land. But when a new leader jumps onboard a train that has already left the station, things are particularly tricky. This is what Yahoo!’s new CEO Scott Thompson faces as he puts together his New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan. As he told Ad Age yesterday, “Speed is important and so is making certain I understand all the history…”
Image via CrunchBase
The basics are always the same, whether you’re following the more general New Leader’s Playbook or The New Leader’s Playbook for Acquisitions. Any new leader is better off if he or she follows the onboarding basics by getting a head start, managing the message and building the team. In Thompson’s case, a critical piece of making the move from PayPal to Yahoo! is figuring out the context and culture, impending acquisition and divestiture moves and how he should engage the Yahoo! train.
Reaching Consensus: Lessons from the Iowa Caucus
Utilize the right decision making process for the situation.
Different situations require different leadership approaches. Often it’s important to have a bias for action – as in a crisis. Other times it’s valuable to dig deeper and get at people’s best thinking. In those cases, find ways to go beyond the constraints of first choices and understand the thinking behind the choices.
Leadership Lessons from the World’s Top Companies: 2011 Year in Review
As you undertake a new job, keep in mind the three steps which will help you succeed: Get a head start. Manage the message. Build the team.
Twenty Four BRAVE Frameworks for a Happy New Year
Happy New Year! My gift to you is 24 BRAVE frameworks that can help make your coming year happier. Headlines here. Click through to the original articles (on a combination of Forbes.com and PrimeGenesis) for more. Happiness is good – Three goods: good for others,...