Papers and Articles

Board Topics

A Respectful Approach to Director Assessment

Many individual board member assessment and development methodologies fail to achieve behavior change. These same methodologies can also have undesirable side effects. This essay describes a methodology that results in behavior change while avoiding undesirable side effects.

The Weak Board Member

Many boards find themselves in a situation with a board member who contributes little or not at all or who may pull the board off topic, slowing down or even interfering with the board’s progress. This article describes strategies for overcoming the presence of the weak board member.

Maximizing Board Impact

This essay describes a framework that a Board can use to enlarge its impact without interfering with management.

Diversify the Board....by Personality Type

Board diversity is typically thought of in obvious ways, i.e., ethnicity, gender, functional expertise, etc. This essay outlines a broader conception of diversity. It focuses on personality types, each of which is essential to optimal board functioning.

New York Times

This is a short description of the concepts contained in the Diversify the Board… by Personality Type essay.

Board Member Excellence

In order to achieve excellence board members can take responsibility for their own development. The essay describes a methodology for doing so.

Attract Outstanding Board Candidates

When a board becomes a "board of choice" it can attract the caliber of board candidates needed in today's complex business environment. This essay lays out a framework for doing so.

Board Management of the Psychological Dynamics in CEO Transitions

CEO transitions elicit powerful emotions in both parties. This essay describes this often denied phenomenon and outlines steps a board can take so that these emotions are managed and positively influence the organization.

Executive Topics

Staying on Strategy

This essay describes the process of "showcasing", a powerful tool leaders can use to keep their organizations strategy focused, strategy motivated and strategy educated.

Leadership At Its Finest Is Invisible

Sophisticated and impactful leadership is often invisible. This essay describes techniques leaders can use to achieve such subtle effectiveness.

Working in the "White Space"

In order to achieve new and heretofore unrealized business opportunities executives often need to work in the white space. This essay describes how to do this and thus realize significant benefits.

Leadership and Raw Intelligence

This essay describes the criticality of high levels of raw intelligence to effective leadership. It then discusses ways to fully capitalize on high levels of intelligence as well as how to mitigate insufficient levels.

How Emotions Influence Business Decisions

Business decisions are not exclusively rational. This essay describes both the positive and negative ways in which emotions influence business decisions.

Management of External Constituents

Despite the large impact that external constituents have on results executives can fail to pay sufficient attention to them. This essay describes ways for executives to manage and capitalilze on external constituents.

High Impact Players

A small number of people deliver the majority of results. This essay describes ways for executives to effectively manage and leverage these high impact players.

Intelligent Micromanagement

There are times when micromanagement is needed and even a responsibility. This essay describes a thought process an executive can use to determine when and how to intelligently employ micromanagement practices.

Creating Organizational Resiliency

A resilient organization copes and succeeds during difficult economic times but also prepares itself to take full advantage of opportunities when business conditions improve. This essay describes specific steps leaders can take to build a resilient organization.

Do You Know Who Is Actually Delivering Results?

A vital executive skill is the ability to distinquish between those who erroneously take credit for results from those who actually deliver results. This essay describes ways for executives to improve their skills in this regard.