Our Blog
Our blog’s inspiration comes from the work we do, the knowledge shared between our clients and us. It is dedicated to effective leadership.
When was the last time you asked: “What does staying human actually mean?” by Chris Parker
Last week, during a strategy session with a client's leadership team, I posed this question. The silence was uncomfortable. Then, finally, someone ventured: "Not being replaced by AI?" Fear. That's what I heard. Not curiosity. Not possibility. Fear. And I understand....
Is this truly a leadership topic?
When Saul Bekin, a Brazilian consultant and business mentor, shared a TED speech titled “Sleep is your superpower”, and commenting it with “Unmissable”, I confess that my first thought was “Thank you for confirming that LinkedIn increasingly seems like Facebook...
Learning to let go: The fifth step in Tuckman cycle
You probably all heard about a classic in team dynamics, called the Tuckman cycle: When assembling, a team (even a couple of people) tends to start with a stage called "Forming" (socialisation, need for inclusion), then it will naturally migrate towards "Storming"...
“Be the bird” by Hamilton Mann
Hamilton Mann is the Group Director, Digital Marketing and Digital Transformation at Thales, an 80'000 people French multinational I came across this article he recently wrote on the topic of innovation. The reason to republish it, with his consent, is that, exactly...
Am I a stone carver or a Cathedral builder?
I work a lot with the themes of Purpose and Deep Intent. A few days ago, I came across a very interesting Cassie Werber’s article dedicated to the same topic. Putting the record straight, INSEAD professor Gianpiero Petriglieri claims that, if it is fundamental to give...
You never will be too empathetic!
Recently, Korn-Ferry published an article about feedback, which was quickly interpreted by some as “too much empathy isn’t good!”. My reply to one of them was that, after 35 years of professional life, I was still expecting to find anyone loaded with too much empathy!...
Don’t waste your time communicating: ENGAGE!
So many leaders still assume that the job has been done, once their Convention, webcast or confcall ended-up well! The Communication Pack is ready; the new Strategy, Vision, Organization or Roadmap has been explained and everyone will now cascade it, supported by a...
If you wish to bring radical change, avoid taking the wrong start!
All of you, whom I had the chance to work for, probably remember this simple and elegant matrix, inherited from my leadership Professor and ex-partner, Chris Parker: The Challenge vs Support matrix. It represents the different sorts of culture that leaders create...
Shapership: The Art of Shaping the Future (Part II)
Aline Frankfort and Jean-Louis Baudoin are the founders of Creative Consulteam, a boutique consultancy in Creative Leadership. Summarizing their observations about leaders who manage to create a culture of innovation, they came up with the concept of "Shapership". ...
Shapership: The Art of Shaping the Future (Part I)
Aline Frankfort and Jean-Louis Baudoin are the founders of Creative Consulteam, a boutique consultancy in Creative Leadership. Summarizing their observations about leaders who manage to create a culture of innovation, they came up with the concept of "Shapership",...
When your team drifts to “benevolent neutrality”, try “Positive Abrasion”
A friend of mine leads a team of 25 top professionals, recognizable by their strong egos. His main frustration was that a sort of “Paradox of Friendship” (following an old study at Bell Labs which found that, in many project teams, creativity and performance were...
Your boss should change and you should stop being a consenting victim!
As I explained in a recent blogpost, there are no options for us: If we want to be credible transformational leaders, the guarantee that our people expect is to see us “put skin in the game” and suffer with them. And our suffering has one name: Spectacularly change...
Our people need Exemplarity, not Perfection!
Each time I meet a CEO or other high-ranking Officer, who’s had the insight that the Disruption Economy requires her organization to transform itself and wants it NOW, my question comes as early as it can in the dialogue: “How badly do you want this change to take...
Performing responsible management is the alternative to tyranny and our only protection against it (P. Drucker)
For Peter Drucker, Business had a different purpose than increasing shareholder value, obsessing about share price or EBITDA monitoring. For one of the most respected leaders in the field of management education, our duty as business leaders is to reinforce democracy...
Transform your “Bored Room” into a “Bold Room”
Nick McRoberts and I, recently had the privilege to be invited to a moving ode to Paris Street Art, the 5* Hotel Molitor. The French Accor Hotels group took a real entrepreneurial risk in transforming this abandoned open-air swimming pool in the Center of Paris, to...
The thin line between being an “isolated weirdo” and a popular Visionary Leader
I guess many of you have seen by now this remarkable short TED talk (3 minutes) from Derek Sivers, dated from 2009 on which I had written a blog post in 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxFt1BZiMTw But what a few only may have seen is what happened to him, before...
How Hofstede’s insights can help you understand the strength and weaknesses of your business
I recently took a flight in Europe (so, I am not aiming at France, since Air France are always on strike). It seemed half full but the boarding took an unnecessary long time to be completed and was completely chaotic, both on my way to and back from that country. And...
“Responsible Leadership is the alternative to tyranny and our only protection against it.” (P. Drucker)
This post is not about football (although it is where the action takes place), but about behaviours, values and our ultimate responsibility as Business Leaders: educating our people! Who hasn’t seen the exemplary images of the Senegalese and Japanese fans, showing...
If people are disengaged, they don’t even need to sabotage, they just need to scrupulously follow the rule! (Y. Morieux)
I am a fan of BCG’s Yves Morieux’s interventions. I see the one here below as his best (and shortest), a must seen! Morieux' topic here is about three levers needed to get a better performance in today’s Disruption Economy and its V.U.C.A. (Volatile, Uncertain,...
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”
Last week’s blog post met an amazing success, suggesting there is a huge malaise about the way Diversity is being dealt with in our organizations. So many of you wrote in confidence and shared something that a lady illustrated so well: “Diversity here has been taken...
“20 years after everybody else, we finally discovered the politically correct…”
“Twenty years after everybody else, we finally discovered the politically correct…” This was the ironic comment of a employee, showing me the predictable and emotionless clip produced by their Chief Diversity Officer (or a title like this) to promote diversity in the...
“Engaging Leadership” has been written for leaders who are about to engage their organisations in change."