Leadership Insights
from the Untangle Doctor®
Blog Post Archive
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When Leaders Struggle with the Soft Stuff — Hire a Qualified Expert
The toughest leadership challenges include navigating tough organizational changes, leading tricky merger integrations, or smoothing out ugly personal dynamics on an all-star leadership team. It is tough enough to work your way through these situations even with the best of help. Merger integrations and strategic change efforts often fail because leaders don’t hire the right help. I recently came across a situation in which a large company asked someone with light educational credentials and a marketing and branding background to lead a mission critical and yet nasty change integration. This person hired on others with similar backgrounds to guide the change process.
Cough it Up™ How to Rid Yourself of Corporate Hairballs
When I began my research into seemingly unsolvable corporate messes, I used the metaphor of a cat hairball to conduct my inquiry. Some people loved the metaphor. Others had negative visceral reactions. Hairballs subsequently became tangles, although much of my work is inspired by my research results on corporate hairballs. I had a lot of fun comparing a cat hairball to a corporate hairball. What follows is just a taste.
When Leaders Have Each Other’s Backs, Teams Have Less Tangles
Jake Pavelka, the Bachelor (yes, I secretly watch the show—I am a romantic at heart) said that he wanted to find a mate who “had his back.” I have facilitated dozens of team effectiveness offsites, and invariably, participants will claim that they either want to know their teammates have their backs or recall that their highest-performing teams were those with members who “had their backs.” I am not sure when or how the term entered the lexicon. I know that it is permeating the language now and particularly in team settings.
Leaders… Untangle Your Own Fears and Minimize Your Corporate Tangles
As the leader of my own firm, the hardest thing that I have had to do during these challenging times is manage myself… and my own fear. The newspaper headlines do not help. This morning, one of the top headlines in the Wall Street Journal screamed "New Fears as Credit Markets Tighten Up." This was like a red light, siren alert: Marcia, arm yourself, and hold on, it is getting worse. As an expert in human and organizational dynamics, I intellectually know that I am "catastrophizing." That is, I am taking one data point and in my mind, extending it out to its worst possible consequence. I know that this is not healthy emotionally, psychologically, or strategically. It is difficult to shore up my confidence and come up with creative business solutions when my mind and body are frozen with fear.