Does intuition lead to fuzzy decision-making?

In past columns I have asked, “Who does the best thinking in your organization?”  The purpose of these questions is to focus on two different and yet important types of thinking:  Creative thinking that generates new ideas that can be exploited for the growth and prosperity of the business, and analytic or critical thinking  to [...]

Personality Testing: After the Hire

"My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too." – Jack Welch "If you don’t invest the time to do it correctly today, you will spend more time and money in repairing mistakes tomorrow."  [...]

9 Steps for Family (and other) Business Succession

The Family Business Center at the University of New Hampshire has put together “Nine Helpful Steps Toward Succession in a Family Owned Business:” You will notice that all of the steps' major components are “human capital” issues. These steps are valid for family owned business but most are also valid for any closely held business. [...]

Personality Testing: Don’t Hire Without It

“Having the most talented people in each of our businesses is the most important thing. If we don’t, we lose.” –Jack Welch while CEO of GE "If you don’t invest the time to do it correctly today, you will spend more time and money in repairing mistakes tomorrow." – Don Paullin Would you describe your employees [...]

Personality Testing, the Swiss Army Knife of Talent Utilization

“Having the most talented people in each of our businesses is the most important thing. If we don’t, we lose.” ─ Jack Welch while CEO of GE "I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.” — [...]

What Can An Executive Hope to Get from Individual Development

About two years ago I was asked to evaluate some up and coming executives for a client. One of the people was destined to be international sales manager on a fast track. After meeting with individual and discovering her background and career aspirations we completed a more formal assessment process including personality and intellectual testing [...]

How to Build Your Pool of Potential Business Leaders

Earlier we had talked about how businesses can benefit from cultivating their own leaders. There is no doubt that much can be said for molding managers from your existing employee pool. Many companies do want to promote from within, fully understanding the benefits of internal growth opportunities, but not all businesses understand how to develop [...]

Where Are Your Company’s Leaders Coming From?

Any business owner or CEO knows that their company's leaders are crucial to the success of their business. Poor leaders equate to poor employee satisfaction and, as a result, poor performance. It is no secret that poor performance has a direct impact on your business's bottom line. Unfortunately, not all businesses are properly cultivating the [...]

Most Business Leaders are Paying Scant Attention to Employee Engagement

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams "View life as a continuous learning experience." – David Gergen If you asked a dozen business leaders to list their goals for the year, chances are you’d hear about increasing sales, improving [...]

Survival of the Fittest

“Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent.” – Nolan Ryan Smith Manufacturing is an 40-year-old manufacturing company that is deep into its second generation of ownership. They have a solid product, excellent service and a very [...]