PrimeGenesis Blog
Video of full New Leader's Playbook Presentation
I gave a presentation to the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group last month - March 22nd, 2011 to be exact. They did a video recording of the whole session which you can see here. The introduction runs until 5:40 on the video. Then full...
Assessing and Managing Onboarding Risks
I wrote articles this week on onboarding risks for each of the Huffington Post, Human Resources Executive, and Forbes. Each had a different perspective, but the main suggestions are: 1) do the right due diligence, 2) pay attention to cultural fit and 3)...
Cusack Capital CEO’s Second Act Disaster (Onboarding Done Wrong)
Cusack’s first mistake was his failure to move from “seller” to “buyer” after the job offer. He conducted virtually no due diligence before accepting. James Googled Cy Leeser, read trade periodicals, and talked to friends in the hedge fund industry who worked in Greenwich, Connecticut near LeeWell Capital.
“But that was it. I had no opportunity to work my way around the inside of LeeWell because the offer came so quickly. “
Due diligence is about understanding and mitigating risk. At a minimum Cusack should have thought like a buyer and insisted on a few days to look long and hard at three of the seven potential onboarding landmines : organizational risks, role risks, and personal risks. If he had, he would have turned down the job and avoided an extremely painful experience. If Cusack had met with the head trader and reviewed even the most cursory internal documents, he would have questioned the viability of LeeWell Capital’s claimed competitive advantage (“the secret sauce”). Lack of sustainable competitive advantage is the biggest organizational risk I can think of.
Sometimes it's best to hit the iceberg head on
There is a compelling argument that had the Titanic hit the iceberg head on it would not have sunk on April 15, 1912 and 1517 people would not have died. There would have been substantial damage to the bow. There would have been some injuries. ...
QlikTech CEO Galvanizes Team, Delivers 50% Growth
QlikTech’s CEO Lars Bjork knows that sustaining extraordinary growth requires rejuvenating the team on a regular basis. That’s why each year for the last 12 years every single one of his employees, from senior executives to the cleaning staff, has participated in a five-day session that celebrates employees and connects the company’s global workforce while building their leadership skills. He’s absolutely convinced that this is one critical element to their having been able to sustain a 50% Compound Annual Growth Rate for five years.
QlikTech’s annual “revaccination” is an opportunity for Lars to reiterate the corporate message and for employees to engage face-to-face with their colleagues from around the world. In homage to QlikTech’s Swedish roots, the same rock band is flown in from Sweden every year (7 years in a row so far). But more importantly, They spend a full day on “value activities,” honoring people that have lived the company’s core values: Challenge, Move fast, Open and straightforward, Teamwork for results, Take responsibility.
GPSEG International Subgroup offers onboarding presentation by PrimeGenesis founder George Bradt
Event | Greater Philadelphia Senior Executives Group | George Bradt | April 12, 2011
The New Leader's Playbook First Cycle of Articles on Forbes.com
The first cycle of my article series, "The New Leader's Playbook" on Forbes.com, was just completed with last week's post on Chiquita CEO, Fernando Aguirre. The series focused on the ten steps new leaders must take between acceptance of a job and the...
Cathie Black – The Case Against the Strongest Athlete
By the end of her first 100-days, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's view of New York Schools Chancellor Cathie Black went from "superstar manager" to "this has not worked out", putting her into the 40% of new leaders that fail in their first 18...
Chiquita CEO Fernando Aguirre on Inspiring and Enabling Others
While you, as a leader, will certainly do this in your own inimitable way, you must Acquire, Develop, Encourage, Plan, and Transition talent over time.
Let your mission inform the ideal organization and help you identify the required roles.
Let your vision then help you identify which of the required roles must be best in class.
Then match performance, strengths, motivation and fit of individuals and roles:
Support and develop high performers in right roles. (Feed them more than just bananas.)
Improve performance of low performers in right roles. (Invest here.)
Evolve high performers in wrong role to better roles over time. (The trickiest challenge of all.)
Move low performers in wrong role to better role now.
Some of your most painful choices are going to be in this area; trying to please everybody will lead to pleasing nobody. Choosing to act on people who are in the wrong roles now or will soon be in the wrong roles is generally not the most enjoyable part of leadership. But it is an essential part.
Remember that you can’t separate the business element from the human element. This is golden rule time. While not all of us will travel from immigrant to CEO, we’re all on a journey. Treat others with the dignity and respect with which you would want them to treat you on your journey. When it’s their turn, they will.
Will Robert Gibbs Find a Friend in Facebook?
I’m not sure how Gibbs and Zuckerberg and his tribe will fit together. What’s scary is neither are they and neither are most people looking to onboard into new organizations. Hopefully this tool can help. Click here to get a paper emailed to you on using the tool to assess cultural fit.
This is one part of step 1 of The New Leader’s Playbook: Position Yourself for Success
There are several components of this including positioning yourself for a leadership role, selling before you buy, mapping and avoiding the most common land mines, uncovering hidden risks in the organization, role, and fit, and choosing the right approach for your transition type.