There is fantastic talent out there to drive growing companies, but the best people are scattered across the globe. The trend towards remote workers requires us to step up to the next level.
When companies go through times of change—whether acquisition, divestiture, leadership change, sales slump or competitive shocks—employees worry, then react, often with little input from management. When change is impending, the CEO (or top-most leader) ought to pull the leadership team together to share the news, discuss what the employees’ concerns might be, then decide on the appropriate message to be conveyed.
Become a pro at firing executives. You won’t brag about it at parties, but your company will be stronger and wealthier for it!
Mighty Midsized Companies is highlighted in Investor’s Business Daily. They’re running it in the paper on Aug 20th and online for the next month. The headline, like my book, focuses on avoiding the impediments to growth. It’s a quick read with a few highlights from the book. Avoid Pitfalls On The Road To Boosting Your Business and keep it growing through its midsize company stage. John McGee and Robert Sher share experiences. Take a look, and please share it with others.
Some companies overdose on meetings, others fail to communicate enough to accomplish crucial projects. But nearly all employees and leaders in midsized companies feel they can do better at internal communications.
Video journalist and instructor Aron Ranen reports that he’s seen a significant rise in the use of video for internal corporate communications. He’s involved with projects for large and midsized companies from brick manufacturing to steel fabricators to bus assemblers, all converting written training and communications to video.
Game playing at work, if done right, can turbocharge performance in the workplace. Business, after all, is a game. We compete with others to win profits, or to go on a quest to attain a grand result.
I’m a big advocate of structured meetings, but some teams can feel choked by too much facilitation—as though they can’t talk informally, like they used to.
Nowadays, the article posted by an author/blogger is just a conversation starter. Much rich dialog happens when people make high quality comments, and others reply, weighing in with their own experience and point of view.
So you’ve read a book, and may have been asked to write a book review—probably by the author. You’re short of time, or maybe you don’t think you’re expert enough to weigh in.
Robert Sher is founding principal of CEO to CEO, a consulting firm of former chief executives that improves the leadership infrastructure of midsized companies seeking to accelerate their performance. He was chief executive of Bentley Publishing Group from 1984 to 2006 and steered the firm to become a leading player in its industry (decorative art publishing).