The quality of a company’s customer service affects its reputation as well as its bottom line. Customer service done well raises an organization’s image in the public eye and attracts new revenue. Customer service done poorly does the opposite. When an organization delivers with such excellence and consistency that its service reputation becomes a competitive…
The Ken Blanchard Companies’ new partnership with bestselling author Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Institute is bringing the concepts from his book High Performance Habits to organizations around the world. In his book Burchard teaches six habits and corresponding practices that differentiate high performers from average performers. Partnering with researchers at the University of California and…
With his first two books, Never Eat Alone and Who’s got Your Back, Keith Ferrazzi taught us the importance of building collaborative relationships. In his latest book, Leading Without Authority, Ferrazzi reinvents the art of collaboration to break down silos, transform teams, and improve overall performance of individuals. He explains that in a world of…
Dear Madeleine, I have a new boss who just offered me the role of lead for a team I have been on for about seven months. Our former lead (who, frankly, wasn’t great at leading) left suddenly a month ago. In the leadership vacuum I kind of stepped up, and nobody seemed to mind. In…
Dear Madeleine, My boss recently left the company. It was very sudden—I can’t tell if he left on his own or if he was fired. We had a good relationship, so I would have thought I would be more in the know. Anyway, my boss’s boss asked me to fill in until they find a…
We are often asked how managers can support direct reports who are going through a learning and development or coaching journey. As it happens, manager support is the most overlooked leverageable asset for ensuring the success of any development activity. Many organizations have “Develops Others” as a competency—and supporting people who are engaged in learning…
Dear Madeleine, I get no feedback. I have done well in my career. I have some big goals and I think I am doing OK at my job. My manager is a big-picture person who is constantly on the move and is only interested in my results, not in me. I think if I asked…
Dave McKeown’s new book The Self-Evolved Leader is, at its essence, a roadmap to leadership excellence. Presented in four sections, this practical handbook guides leaders along the journey, covering everything from building a foundation of effective leadership to sustaining their newfound skills. McKeown believes leaders are caught in a cycle of mediocrity—and he says it’s…
The business world has always moved fast. Now it’s in overdrive. We’ve been talking internally about the “Great Acceleration” for a few months now, so it was fun to see McKinsey report on the concept in a recent piece. One quote dramatically summed up what is happening: “Compared with the Industrial Revolution, we estimate that…
Dear Madeleine, I am a senior business leader for a global manufacturing company. I recently was on a panel with an officer of our company—not my boss, but a peer of my boss. He was very impactful with his remarks; I was okay but not nearly as sharp. Later, when I complimented him on his…