How to Be the Best Leader Your Direct Reports Ever Had! How to Be the Best Leader Your Direct Reports Ever Had! How to Be the Best Leader Your Direct Reports Ever Had! Got your attention?  OK let’s first acknowledge that being the best leader your direct reports ever had may not be too difficult.  In practice, the bar on leadership could be set higher, so following the pearls of wisdom imparted below may put you way on the top of the list.  Even if you have some of the rare folks [...]

Coaching Technical Leaders: A Two-Step Approach to Improving Collaboration and Leadership Skills Coaching Technical Leaders: A Two-Step Approach to Improving Collaboration and Leadership Skills Coaching Technical Leaders: A Two-Step Approach to Improving Collaboration and Leadership Skills Over the past several years, while working with hedge funds and banks, I have coached a number of leaders engaged in highly technical work. They work in complex areas such as quantitative research, electronic trading, and software development. Recently, I reviewed 22 coaching assignments with this population and this is the first of several articles describing the [...]

Professional New Year Resolutions That Work Professional New Year Resolutions That Work Professional New Year Resolutions That Work Well it is January again, time for New Year resolutions. A time honored tradition that stems from our instinctive desire to improve ourselves. Problem is that resolutions often do not result in any real change. So here are some pointers for setting some professional resolutions that will result in positive change: Focus on what you can control – Namely your behavior. Not the behavior of others. For example, not, “improve motivation of my employees,” [...]

Coaching the Reluctant Leader: Transitioning Executers into Expanded Leadership Roles Coaching the Reluctant Leader: Transitioning Executers into Expanded Leadership Roles Coaching the Reluctant Leader: Transitioning Executers into Expanded Leadership Roles Many of the individuals I coach are primarily executers who have obtained leadership positions through excelling in their respective disciplines. Professions which fall into this category include investment bankers, traders, lawyers, doctors, scientists and technologists. Often, it is as veterans that they are advanced into leadership roles requiring new responsibilities in areas that they have not had to focus on to date. [...]

How Do You Stop the Bad Behavior of Valuable Talent? Put it in a Box! How Do You Stop the Bad Behavior of Valuable Talent? Put it in a Box! How Do You Stop the Bad Behavior of Valuable Talent? Put it in a Box! The core strategic advantage of most of the companies I have consulted with is their people. Unfortunately, sometimes the smartest and most productive talent engage in unproductive behavior. A head of a foreign exchange trading desk destroys his phone console on the trading floor in a fit [...]

Time Allocation: Managing Employee Inventory of Hours Time Allocation: Managing Employee Inventory of Hours Time Allocation: Managing Employee Inventory of Hours A truism is that a primary role of an organization and its leaders is to improve the skills of its employees. While this may seem sacrilegious, I propose that skill development has been over emphasized and a faster route towards increasing productivity has been ignored. The shortest, most reliable, and most effective route towards increasing productivity is increasing employees’ allocation of time spent on core job tasks and behaviors that directly [...]