Jackson Hole Group

"What Bill has that Barack is Missing: An Observation on Leadership" by Barry Briggs On the heels of former President Bill Clinton’s speech at the DNC last week, and with Maureen Dowd’s NYT op-ed piece on Wednesday (The Comeback Vegan, http://www.nytimes.com//opin/dowd-the-comeback-vegan.html ) in my rearview mirror, I started contemplating why I am feeling so nostalgically attached to Clinton’s brand of leadership, and what if any lessons have surfaced for Obama to conte...Continue reading

"It's All About Culture!" by Dr. Richard Mirabile Most everyone in the business world today would agree that the culture of a company is a key ingredient for building a great and sustainable organization. Numerous studies have demonstrated the link between culture and such metrics as financial performance, innovation, and customer satisfaction. We also know from research in the field known as Interactional Psychology that the degree of fit between a person and their work en...Continue reading

"Build Quality In" by Stewart Gill A client recently expressed concern about the number of newly hired employees who did not perform well once on the job. Employee performance was not the main topic of our meeting, but it prompted me to reflect more upon the issue. Early in my career I joined a semiconductor company, after many years in high technology manufacturing. Soon after joining this new company, we embarked on a company-wide process called Quality is Free, based on ...Continue reading

"Worth Her Weight in Gold" by Peggy Tate Women are asserting their value across a wide range of fields these days from athletics to the boardroom. Look at the recent London Olympics. For the first time women participants on the U.S. team outnumber men. Women on the U.S. team were awarded 29 gold, 50% of their total medals. U.S. women accounted for nearly two thirds of the gold medal wins for the entire U.S. team. If the U.S. women were a country, they would be ranked fifth i...n overall medal wins behind Great Britain. These women have done it as individuals and as team members. Forget the old-fashioned notion that women don’t excel at team sports. It seems no coincidence that 2012 is the 40th anniversary of Title IX that increased opportunities for women to fully participate in U.S. sports. The recent appointment of Marissa Mayer as President and CEO of Yahoo is another indicator of going for the gold. Ms. Mayer was well positioned with Google. As an early employee at Google, she had achieved significant career and financial success. Her understanding of the web consumer, evidenced by her influence on the brand Google gave the organization competitive advantages which created differentiation for the company. Yet, the opportunity to lead Yahoo and reposition it in the market enabled the Yahoo Board of Directors to recruit her to this challenging role. And kudos to the Board for not blinking an eye over her pregnancy! Most importantly the Board recognized the strategic impact she would have on Yahoo and the desire they have to reinvent their own brand. Reports are already flying that she is considering a key change for shareholders from a recent acquisition. She is already starting to make her mark and assert her value. What these and countless other women have in common is drive, resilience, and the belief that they can compete and succeed. In addition, they have had the benefit of exceptional women before them who have been mentors, role models, coaches, and teachers. In the 2010 book Knowing Your Value, Mika Brzezinski talks about her personal struggle to get the recognition and pay she deserved. She interviewed high profile women in various fields who shared similar stories as well as the behavioral patterns that often undermine women’s success. Women continue to make great progress, but there is still much work to be done. Women are competing and winning; more and more sit in the boardroom. As leaders and role models, our responsibility is to encourage women to their highest level of achievement and to put in place policies and practices that support them. Our organizations will all be richer for it. And the contributions these women make will be worth their weight in goldand more! Alternative Reading: http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/index.html http://www.amazon.com/Knowing-Your-Value-Wome//ref=sr_1_1

"In Search of the Absurd - A New Mindset About Talent" by Dr. Richard Mirabile Albert Einstein once said that, Unless an idea is absurd, it has little chance of succeeding. Profound words from a profound source. Fast forward to the present day. Talent strategies are now the current buzz. Just look around at what’s going on. Start-up companies are springing up with glitzy technology solutions. Recruiters are utilizing social media to find new sources of talent. Mature compan...Continue reading

"Organizational Olympics" by Peggy Tate The London Olympics have been all over the news for several weeks now. With that comes much discussion of winners, losers, setbacks, and triumphs. And, of course, the questions What makes a winner? What makes the difference? The answers are often consistent and predictable hard work, dedication, drive, coaching, and practice, practice, practice. Natural gifts of talent certainly help, but most of these extraordinary athlete...Continue reading

"The Importance of Assessment" by Peggy Tate & Stewart Gill How often have we seen the headline New CEO ousted? Watched a high performing technical expert, financial head or operations executive struggle when promoted into the senior leadership role? Witnessed a successful executive blindsided by an exodus of unhappy employees? Decisions about selection and promotion are often based solely on performance or track record in a prior role with inadequate attention paid to ...Continue reading

"The Introvert Leader" by Peggy Tate The War for Talent has been a critical business issue for decades and shows little sign of diminishing soon. While unemployment rates remain high, many organizations struggle to identify the quality and quantity of leadership talent to meet the demands of their business strategies. Yet, there may be an untapped reservoir of talent right before us. Think about the quiet person in the meeting, the one who listens carefully before speaking,...Continue reading

"So Simple, Yet All Too Rare" by Barry Briggs: I recently facilitated an executive offsite session in which participants were asked to identify someone (other than their parents) who had had the greatest impact on their lives. Two of the executives named former CEOs of theirs as having been pivotal figures; heartening indeed, but what was more compelling was the commentary that ensued. In both cases, the executives stated that their CEO had been hyper- aware of the unique co...ntributions that they had made to the company, and that they would routinely and repeatedly refer to those accomplishments both in private and public settings, even years after the fact. Most successful executives don’t get to the C-level without self motivation, and most of them tend to be their own toughest critics. So choosing the carrot vs. the stick methodology seems to be a no-brainer. However, hard driving CEOs can be extremely focused on getting to the next level of success, and can often fail to give themselves or their people credit for the important contributions they are making to the business. The psychic reward from having a respected leader understand and proactively appreciate your accomplishments is immense, and as these executives pointed out, it can be deeply meaningful to their lives. You can’t over-estimate the power of an authentic compliment. CEOs should be thoughtful about what each individual on their team is uniquely doing to build value and advance the company’s cause. And they should not be shy about verbalizing appreciation for those contributions not only to the executive in question, but to the board, his/her peers, or other relevant parties who themselves could find motivation in seeing the CEO publicly recognize accomplishment. I had the good fortune of working for a CEO who did this naturally and artfully. It was clearly the reporting relationship that motivated me to want to go the extra mile, the one that eliminated needless worry and fear, and the one I look back at as having been the most satisfying and rewarding. Simple Lesson Learned: 1) Know what each member of your team is uniquely bringing to the table 2) Recognize and verbalize those contributions to them privately, and publicly 3) Never forget itBecause they’ve given you a part of themselves, a part of their lives, in building something of value

"Today's Instant Communications and Why We Should Be Cautious" by Jim Wiggett: In this day of instant communications and high mobility, we often find ourselves in the middle of conversations we did not expect. We have developed a conditioned behavior to always answer our smart phones, text messages or emails no matter where we are or who is around us. Sometimes the situation is funny, like when you are standing at a bar and your mother calls, and sometimes it is dangerous. ...Continue reading