In his wonderful book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” Marshall Goldsmith lists twenty habits that he claims often prevent successful people from becoming more successful. The twentieth habit he calls “an excessive need to be me.” Here his explanation of this habit: Each of us has a pile of behavior that we define as […]
As we all know, corporations are not immune to occasional accounts of hype and exaggeration. You are no doubt familiar with the inflated claims that some firms make about their products and services. The FDA and other government agencies sometimes have to step in and dismiss firms’ claims about the supposed efficacy of their products. Just recently, for […]
In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the term” thin slicing”, and this is how he described it: “(Thin-slicing)… is a central part of what it means to be human. We thin-slice whenever we meet a new person or have to make sense of something quickly or reencounter a novel situation. We thin-slice because we have […]
Kanji Nagano was a Japanese manager for a global financial services company in Tokyo. Although well educated, having gone to one of Japan’s exclusive universities, he had never been out of the country and had always worked for Japanese companies. He showed strong leadership qualities even when he was in school, where he was elected to many […]
As a young professional in an emerging market, would you rather work for a global multi-national or for a local company? As recently as five years ago, this question was a “no-brainer” for many bright talented men and women in emerging markets like China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Chile. Working for a global company, especially one with a […]
When Zoe Chang was promoted to become the Asia-Pacific regional marketing head for her company, a major global consumer products firm, she was very excited. She had been head of marketing for Taiwan for the past five years, and had achieved outstanding results. Shortly after her promotion, Zoe flew to the United States to meet with […]
During a workshop that I conducted recently with a corporate client, I met Tom Walker, who had joined the company several months ago after a 20-year career with an agency of the federal government, where he was in charge of a department of 50 people. In his new company, he also has a big staff, about […]
We all know who they are – those narcissists who seem to rise quickly in organizations only to crash and burn eventually. We can point to failed corporate leaders such as Bob Nardelli of Home Depot, Tony Hayward of BP and Ken Lay of Enron as prime examples of such leaders. However, others point to […]
Professor Robert Cialdini’s groundbreaking research and his six principles of persuasion have been very influential with social scientists, marketers, and policy-makers, and have been applied in different contexts, from fund-raising to consumer and marketing research. Many of you are no doubt familiar with these principles of persuasion, which I summarize here: Liking: people like those […]
My favorite business writer, the late Peter Drucker, once wrote a slim but important book called The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization. The questions are clear and simple and seem intended for executives (especially those in non-profits) wishing to conduct a self-assessment about their organization. According to Drucker, this “self-assessment […]