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What do lion prides do with passengers?

By | 2017-09-29T10:00:24+00:00 September 28th, 2017|2017, Authors, Books, Executive Teams, Grant Ashfield, Key Note Speakers, Motivation, Organisational Health, Team Work, Teams|

Tackling the thorny issue of poor performance and unmet expectations is vital if a business team wants to be successful and breakthrough to the next level. Ian Thomas and I discuss this question in the 2nd video in the series. The key is to deal with these issues early, directly and of course kindly. It’s a mistake to wait. Waiting does everyone a disservice. People want to know where they stand and they rely on you to tell them and guide them. I am a beneficiary of this. Ten years ago, after a consulting session with an Executive Team the [...]

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Lions have mastered this skill… how about you?

By | 2017-09-29T10:01:44+00:00 August 24th, 2017|2017, Books, Executive Teams, Grant Ashfield, Key Note Speakers, Motivation, Team Work, Teams, Video|

In a lion pride, team selection and membership is an essential part of their survival. For lions, especially when they are hunting big prey like buffaloes it is a life or death issue. Having the right team members on the hunt not only ensures their success but also guarantees their safety. Here there is no place for complacency, confusion or personal positioning and ego. It is about getting the job done and ensuring the wellbeing of the pride. In organisations the consequences of getting team membership wrong is not so immediately felt. But it’s essential nevertheless. In fact it is [...]

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Are you measuring what really matters?

By | 2017-08-30T11:20:32+00:00 July 24th, 2017|2017, Authors, Grant Ashfield|

We are past halfway in 2017. Are you on track? Every organisation measures sales and cash flow and operating profit. What we call the smart stuff. You will have a very clear idea of these things I am sure. But is your organisation healthy? Some say this can’t be measured. That's not true. It can, but you have to ask the right questions and then be willing to talk about what’s really going on – with an unusual level of honesty. The numbers are vital but they don't tell the full story. They don't give you the full picture about [...]

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Is your organisation really a great place to work?

By | 2017-08-30T11:20:32+00:00 June 26th, 2017|2017, Grant Ashfield, Motivation, Team Work, Teams|

I recently hosted a discussion with a small group of people aged between 21 and 34. The group, made up of employees from junior and middle management, was talented and ambitious with the potential, the CEO told me, to succeed at the highest level in the company. Her worry was whether they would stay and if the culture of the business really supported the growth and development of talented people. “A lot of our best people leave once we have trained them, it’s very costly and frustrating to keep starting all over again.” It's a problem many companies face. The [...]

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Do you have the right people on your team?

By | 2017-08-30T11:20:33+00:00 March 17th, 2017|2017, Authors, Executive Teams, Grant Ashfield, Patrick Lencioni, Team Work, Top Teams|

A few years ago I had the privilege of working closely with Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall.   Having the right people on the executive team is a subject he has researched deeply. It's the whole basis of his work, captured in the maxim, “first who then what.” It’s also a subject we are often asked to advise on by the leaders we work with. The question is vital.  I see many organisations trying to achieve a significant performance improvement and culture shift – without really taking seriously the most important question of all, [...]

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Do you have a real team at the top?

By | 2017-09-29T10:03:54+00:00 February 20th, 2017|2017, Executive Teams, Grant Ashfield, Organisational Health, Patrick Lencioni, Team Work, Teams, Top Teams|

Last time I promised to write about how to start to tap into the gold mine inside your organisation. The first step is to build a real team at the top. When your company's executive team are not on the same page about what’s best for the whole organisation and they put their own interests, needs and functional areas before the priorities of the larger organisation there is a problem. A bank executive told me recently, when there is no cohesion and unity at the top, the stage is set for interdepartmental rivalry, backbiting, confusion and infighting everywhere else. This [...]

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What is your most important priority as a leader in 2017?

By | 2017-08-30T11:20:33+00:00 January 30th, 2017|2017, Executive Teams, Grant Ashfield, Motivation, Organisational Health, Patrick Lencioni, Team Work, Teams|

Every business we work with today is experiencing major competition and change. Under this constant pressure everyone is striving to stay ahead. Despite this, many leaders still limit their search for competitive advantage to conventional and largely exhausted areas like marketing, strategy and technology. It’s not that these aren’t important. They are and always will be. But the obvious is being ignored. In every organisation there is an untapped gold mine sitting right beneath every leader. Becoming a healthy organisation is how to access this gold. As Patrick Lencioni asserts, instead of trying to become smarter (most organisations have enough [...]

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How do you bring a business back to life?

By | 2017-08-30T11:20:34+00:00 December 6th, 2016|Uncategorized|

In September each year we meet up with Patrick Lencioni and our partners, The Table Group in the beautiful city of San Francisco. It's a wide gathering of consultants from around the world and our purpose is to learn from each other and our clients. We are an international community dedicated to helping organisations become healthier. This year one of our guests was Guy Warren. He is a CEO, based in London. Guy has a Private Equity background and gets brought into a company when it’s in trouble. His job is to bring these companies back to life. His philosophy [...]

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Four Disciplines for a Healthy Organisation

By | 2017-08-30T11:20:34+00:00 June 27th, 2016|Executive Teams, Grant Ashfield, Organisational Health, Patrick Lencioni, Team Work, Teams|

Most organisations that want to get better are not struggling because they lack good products, market opportunities or clever people. Rather they are struggling because they are unhealthy. A healthy organisation has minimal politics or confusion and sets high standards of performance. Here talented people work together on common goals while success is measured not by personal victories but by the progress of the joint plan. It's the polar opposite of a company fragmented by internal strife and paralysed by its own poisoned culture. In these unhealthy cutthroat places, infighting at the top occupies more time than solving problems on [...]

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The Ideal Team Player

By | 2017-08-30T11:20:34+00:00 May 30th, 2016|Authors, Books, Grant Ashfield, Organisational Health, Patrick Lencioni, Team Work, Teams|

Teamwork is a subject that receives so much attention. Almost every organisation wants more of it and is willing to invest in getting it – especially at the top where it is often in the shortest supply. But do we know what qualities to look for in someone who will make a good team member? Well this month Patrick Lencioni released his latest book, The Ideal Team Player. It’s written in his usual style as a fable and it's a wonderful read. In the book he describes the qualities of an ideal team player. I had a discussion with him [...]

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