#21: The Number One Way to Accelerate Culture Change
Organizational culture is "simply the way things get done around here." It is made up of the values that the majority of people in the organization hold, particularly those on the senior team, that filter how they take in information and make decisions.
To be clear, you cannot discern what a company's culture is all about by seeing value statements on the website or on the break room wall. Those might be aspirations. True culture is revealed when decisions are being made around what initiatives get funding, who is promoted and what success stories are told.
It is for this reason, culture change is the number one consulting challenge you'll ever face.
Why You Need to Listen In
In this week's podcast from my series "Consulting Matters: Mastering the Art & Science of the Business" I not only share why culture change is so difficult but also the number one way that you can quickly accelerate culture change (and this solution has nothing to do with...
#22: What All Consultants Ought to Know About Strategy Development
Talk to two consultants and you're likely to get three definitions for strategy. Some define strategy as branding while others think of strategy as goal setting and action planning. And they are both right!
Strategy at the end of the day is a series of tradeoffs and decisions. In order words, strategy is not found on the break room walls or in a dusty binder on the bookshelf. Strategy is ultimately contained in the decisions that everyone in the organization makes.
What you client needs in order to align the team around common decision-making filters depends on where the organization is at its lifecycle. A start up of a handful of people needs something very different than a large organization with thousands of employees and multiple locations.
Why You Need to Listen In
In this week's podcast from my series "Consulting Matters: Mastering the Art & Science of the Business" I share with you how to customize a strategy solution that matches...
#23: 5 Cutting Edge Organizational Structures Your Growth-Oriented Clients Need
One of the most powerful tools that a leader has to drive performance improvement is their organization design. However, many leaders and their consultants are simply unaware or unequipped to know how use this tool.
In this week's podcast from my series "Consulting Matters: Mastering the Art & Science of the Business," I share with you how to ensure that your ambitious clients can consistently optimize their internal effectiveness and efficiency as they grow and mature.
You'll also discover five cutting edge organizational structures that every company should consider as they pursue market leadership.
Organization design is one of the most strategic and high-value consulting solutions you can offer. If you can include it among your services, you have an ability to quickly optimize your credibility and earning power with high-paying corporate clients.
Where You Might Get Stuck
Organization design commands high fees because...
#24: 3 Reasons We Need to Stop the Myth That Everyone Is a Leader
One of the biggest myths in organizations today is "everyone is a leader." Sure everyone needs to take full responsibility for themselves and their work as well as become an influencer regardless of positional authority.
But having the ability to be an influencer or possessing good self-management skills is not the same as having the gift of leadership. The “everyone is a leader” myth, which has been blindly accepted as truth, actually waters down the significance and uniqueness of the gift of leadership and keeps people who don’t have that gift from finding out what they actually are great at doing. It’s like telling an athletic team that all of its members are star players, when that is far from the reality. If all of the team members believed they are stars and their coaches manage them as if they are, there would be no teamwork, chaos would reign, and success would fly out the window.
Why You Need to Listen In...
#25: The Disney Secrets to Performance Excellence
I’ll never forget the moment of joy and accomplishment when I was hired as an internal consultant at Walt Disney World back in 1999. It feels like yesterday when I was walking out of Team Disney with my offer and the potential to work for arguably one of the most premier companies in the world.
During my first few weeks, I began to fully appreciate why I, along with my 20 other teammates were hired and what we were there to do. A few years prior, the company engaged on one of the most massive (and successful) culture changes I had ever witnessed.
This initiative which became know as Performance Excellence, was led by visionary change leader who knew that the company’s formula of success which only focused on the guest wasn’t going to create lasting value. The lasting value was to balance guest satisfaction alongside other organizational components: leadership excellence, employee performance AND business results.
My team was...
#27: The Disney Secrets to Customer Service Excellence
In this week's podcast, I share with you what I learned from my years at Disney about what creates amazing experiences that turns customers into raving fans and brand loyalists.
Why You Need to Listen In
As consultants, everything we do ultimately affects customer satisfaction. And customer satisfaction holds the key to a company's immediate and long-term profitability.
Satisfied customers:
- Are more likely to spend more money with the company
- Will buy additional products and/or services
- Recommend the company to others
Regardless of your area of expertise, you have to be able to connect the dots between your solutions and the impact they have on the customer experience.
#28: The Disney Secrets to Exceptional Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is not some sexier new term for employee satisfaction. It's actually a total shift the pursuit of employee happiness towards employee motivation.
Employee engagement is all about to what degree employees are rationally and emotionally committed to the organization that they work for which translates to two key outcomes:
1. To what degree employees go above and beyond for customers and teammates?
2. To what degrees employees want to stay working for the company?
Why You Need to Listen In
In this week's podcast, I share with you what I learned about creating engaged employees from my time as an internal consultant at Walt Disney World. The principles you will learn about are transferable and scalable to companies of all sizes and industries.
The information is essential for consultants (new and seasoned) because at some point you're going to be ask to offer a training program of some kind as a magic silver bullet to solve some...
#26: Cultivating Integrity at Work
In today's podcast, I am going to reveal the one thing that every organization needs to ensure its long-term success and forever sidestep organizational decline. This one thing isn't cash flow or even a breakthrough product line. It's integrity.
Integrity at work goes beyond truth in pricing and ethical financial reporting - but it starts there.
If you think companies need to do better than just hit short-term profit goals, you need to listen in to this week's podcast which will provide two things for you:
1. Validation that your values around honesty, respect and appreciation for everyone's contribution are shared.
2. Expanded perception around all the facets of integrity and what it means to create a sustainably healthy organization.
At the end of the day, a consultant is so much more than someone who provides services to an organization without being a full-time employee or even a strategic advisor. A consultant is someone who speaks truth to power...
#13 3 Steps to Landing High-Paying Contracts
If you want to land contracts but hate sales and the idea of asking for higher fees makes you queasy - I got great news for you. You don't have to.
In my podcast from my series Consulting Matters: Mastering the Art & Science of the Business I am going to introduce in a better way to land contract which is through establishing a strategic partnership with a future client.
When you listen in - you'll discover the three steps to take in order to position yourself as a peer and your consulting against the most significant business issues your future client is dealing with.
You'll discover that you can win both business AND trust and that is possible to make great money WHILE making a difference.
The #1 Thing Your Client Doesn't Get About Employee Engagement
One of the best things about mentoring other consultants is the opportunity it gives me to reflect on what I do as a consultant and why.
This week our group was exploring the topic of gaining and retaining leadership buy-in and it caused me to stop and really think why this matters so much and it all boils down to this -
The one thing that we all really want from others in order to trust them is confidence that when they make decisions they take into account what's in our best interest.
When I train consultants on the importance of doing an assessment and taking the time to deeply listen to stakeholders (whether they are executives, managers, employees or customers) it's not just about a consulting approach that generates revenue for them. It's about being a a conduit to help those people in the organization be heard and have a voice on issues that effect them.
What most leaders (and even consultants) don't get about creating employee engagement is that it's not...
