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Latest "Organizational Performance" Posts
What’s sabotaging your growth?
Driving profitable growth is at the top of every leader’s priority list. Yet, according to Bain and Company, only 10% succeed in achieving sustainable profitable growth.
While growth is the life-blood of every business, at some point, your company will experience the double edge sword of growth.
Either your company will grow faster than your internal capacity to handle it. Chaos, breakdowns and burnout are the result.
OR
Your company hits a wall and growth flattens. As a result, panic often sets in and leaders make rash decisions – either prolonging the stall or causing the company to spiral downward.
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on March 23, 2016 in Company Culture, Fast Growth, Hiring Practices, Leadership Development, Leadership Performance, Organizational Performance, Organizational Transformation, Profitability.
The Secret Weapon of Great Leaders.
Have you ever experienced in a meeting where a seasoned leader listened intently and then, with exquisite timing, asked one question that shifted the direction, focus and thinking of the entire team?
That is the magic and power of questions!
To move the needle in your organization in 2016, the first place to start is by asking thought-provoking questions. The 7 questions below are by no means exhaustive. They serve as a starting point to stimulate your own questions.
These (or comparable) questions can make the difference between a successful 2016 and a disappointing one.
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on January 27, 2016 in Goal Achievement, Leadership Development, Leadership Performance, Mindset, Motivation, Organizational Performance, Strategic Thinking.
What if…
- You could easily predict the performance of your leaders, your teams and your organization?
- You could gain access to the underlying motivators that drive a leader or employee to do their best work?
- You could eliminate costly hiring mistakes and determine in advance to what extent a candidate will perform well in a role?
Such a solution exists and can unleash the potential and performance within your organization.
It’s called motivational profiling. Your underlying (and often unconscious) attitudes and motivations determine what you pay attention to and focus on in your leadership role.
These deep motivation and attitudinal patterns (MAPs) ultimately drive – yours and others’ –
- Behaviors
- Decision making style
- Requirements for change and variety
- Dominant motivation driver
- Levels of strategic and visionary thinking
- Relationship to norms/rules
- Orientation toward innovation and creativity
- And much more
Drawing on recent evolutions in cognitive science research, motivational profiling is a state-of-the-art assessment tool that provides a window into yours and your employees’ intrinsic motivations and attitudes at work.
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on July 14, 2015 in Assessments, Leadership Performance, Mindset, Motivation, Organizational Performance, Top Talent.
From early childhood, we were all taught never to lie. That was drilled into our psyche with such stories as Pinocchio and George Washington and the Cherry Tree
I learned growing up, however, that not lying is NOT the same thing as admitting and telling the truth. The former prevents us from making false statements; the latter has the generative power to change individuals and organizations.
In my decades of working with business leaders, I have found that there is one trait — above all others – that transforms mediocre leaders to extraordinary ones. That one trait is …
Rigorous truth-telling
Real leaders have backbone.
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on November 11, 2014 in Accountability, Beliefs, Emotional Mastery, Goal Achievement, Leadership Development, Leadership Performance, Mindset, Organizational Performance.
Leaders lie to themselves. And they don’t even realize it.
I know this statement may sound harsh at first. I ask you to hold your judgment until after you’ve finished the article to understand why.
For example, when a company is stuck or has plateaued, I often hear reasons like …
- Our company did not grow because of the economy.
- We need more knowledge or technology to beat our competition.
- We have to seize every revenue opportunity as it comes our way or we won’t survive.
- The marketplace is an unfriendly place.
Do any of these sound familiar in your company?
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on April 6, 2014 in Emotional Mastery, Goal Achievement, Leadership Development, Leadership Performance, Mindset, Organizational Performance.
The Bonus Question Is The Punch Line.
At the end of every year, I take a personal private retreat to clear my mind, take inventory of the past year and create a new vision for the new year. Knowing the power of questions, at the start of each retreat, I ask myself …
What are the 10 most important questions to ask myself in this retreat to take my business (and life) to a more meaningful, impactful and prospering level in the new year?
For 3-4 days, I spend time by the ocean simply reflecting, letting go of any goals, plans or expectations.
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on March 4, 2014 in Change Management, Fast Growth, Goal Achievement, Leadership Performance, Mindset, Organizational Performance, Strategic Thinking, Vision.
The Finale Says It All.
As a leader, how often do you find yourself …
I’m guessing what you really want is to stop your perpetual busyness. You want to focus on the critical few. You want to navigate your company, amidst constant change, to its ultimate destination.
In my decades of working with leaders, I have found that the above are symptoms that a leader lacks the capacity to think strategically.
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on in Change Management, Fast Growth, Goal Achievement, Leadership Performance, Mindset, Motivation, Organizational Performance, Organizational Transformation, Strategic Thinking.
“Leading From Guts” drives extraordinary organizations and a company’s distinctive edge in the marketplace.
The inspiration for this article was the movie “The Rosa Parks Story” – a story about a simple seamstress and civil rights activist with unwavering toughness of character that, in 1955, changed the course of history and segregation in the U.S.
Her unwillingness to relinquish her seat on a segregated bus to a white person set in motion a whole chain of catalyzing events – including imprisonment, a boycott of the Montgomery Bus, a new civil rights organization led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a repealing of the segregation law on buses in Montgomery.
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on February 4, 2014 in Fast Growth, Leadership Development, Leadership Performance, Mindset, Organizational Performance.
7 Signs Your Organization Is Headed in the Wrong Direction
Has the obsession to create a happy, engaged workforce gone toxic in your company?
Is over-emphasizing positive thinking in your company’s culture, actually creating negativity without you even knowing it?
Is having 0% employee turnover actually a good thing to sing high praises about, or is it overshadowing another truth?
These are just a few examples of how companies, even with great cultures, can go to the dark side.
The REAL Truth About Your Company Culture & Its Hidden Shadow Side
Most great cultures are driven by handful of sacred values.
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on January 2, 2014 in Alignment, Assessments, Change Management, Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Leadership Development, Leadership Performance, Organizational Performance, Organizational Transformation.
Re-Imagining New Leadership Possibilities in 2014
It’s that time of the year! Most business leaders are preparing for an executive off-site to define their company’s future direction for the new year.
Yet, in my 30 years experience of working with leadership teams and companies, the terms “vision,” “mission” and “values” are THE most overused, misunderstood and abused words in the business community today.
Vision statements, mission statements and strategic plans in many companies reduce to mere academic exercises with no real value in driving an organization forward. Why? Let’s take a look.
Why Most Company Visions Get an “F”: The Big 3
- Your company’s vision lacks the necessary specificity and inspiration to pull your company forward.
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Posted by Denise Corcoran on December 3, 2013 in Alignment, Employee Engagement, Goal Achievement, Leadership Development, Leadership Performance, Mindset, Motivation, Organizational Performance, Organizational Transformation, Vision.
While growth is the life-blood of every business, at some point, your company will experience the double edge sword of growth.
