Posts From: Michael O'Connor

Most organizations that measure their customer satisfaction still do so by a 0-100 point scale. However, recent changes in known customer loyalty for products/services appear to indicate that this metric may no longer be a sound one to use. I learned this myself recently when talking with my esteemed colleague and recognized expert in this area of business performance, Phil Forrest. Phil is the President of the International Customer Service Institute (ticsi.com) and the founding Chairperson for the British Business Awards shown annually on BBC-TV. Here are the questions I asked him and his revealing answers that could mean the difference between success vs. failure for your business.

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During the past few years my professional work has led to a return to international advisory, consulting, and training services after a two decade hiatus for personal health and work initiatives reasons. Because of this return and the demands of travel, it has resulted in a void in these blogs that I’ve had time to provide. Having now returned, what have I discovered from this real-life ‘field research’ working with people across five continents? Three particular insights seem worth sharing for the benefit of readers and international leader-managers.

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In my work with various client organizations and others, a re-occurring question raised (usually by senior leaders or owners) is the ‘difference between effective leaders’. In fact, it is not uncommon for current generation emerging and younger leaders to view older leaders as less effective than expected. We’ve found that is often due to younger leaders’ focus on leadership success versus effectiveness. So what’s the difference and why is it important? Successful leaders (and people), regardless of age,

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“These are the times that try men’s souls!” This famous quote hundreds of years old by Thomas Paine at the time of the American Revolution could equally apply to the difficulties faced by so many around the world today. And, it is exactly this unfavorable situation, which proves the point that most people are, in fact, externally shaped by the forces in our environment - economic, social, political, military, religious, and other circumstances. One of these counterproductive patterns that is increasingly obvious in my own and others’ daily lives is the multiplying lack of collaboration between individuals, groups, and entities. We see it, hear it, experience it, and are at least indirectly negatively impacted by such unrest that spans our settings - interpersonal relationships, work life tensions, labor-management strife, and political rigidity. But though we are all likely to agree about these realities ...

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While so many individuals, organizations, and areas continue to cope with the damaging impact of the world-wide "Financial Crisis," in the past few weeks, events have also re-focused our attention on another devastating one - the "Character Crisis." This crisis is one that, unlike the financial one, touches virtually all of us worldwide. Let’s take a look at how.

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The following is a guest blog by my colleague, David Spader, which I’ve decided to run at this time because of its timeliness for those companies experiencing a leadership crisis that demographic changes predict will become much more significant. David is a leadership development consultant with Spader Business Management (www.spader.com), a company with a proven track record of providing both financial and human performance guidance for a variety of industries for the past thirty years. - What happens when you don’t have a strong bench? The Indianapolis Colts just found out. Quarterback great Peyton Manning did not lead his team onto the field at the start of this season for the first time in 227 consecutive games. Apparently the coaches were caught off guard since nobody seems to ...

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In my previous blog, I addressed the fact that most MANAGERS are not effective and why. Now, we will turn our attention to the same problem as it applies to LEADERS. The supporting research for this was provided in the previous blog “Our Problem Is ... That Most Managers And Leaders Are NOT Effective” (see for reference). So let’s address the difference between “Managers” and “Leaders,” as a starting point. To begin, while the “Manager” role is a formal one, “Leaders” may be either formal or informal. In fact our research (and another previous blog on Followership, “The Other Half Of Leadership”) point out that about half of the characteristics of leaders

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People way too often assume that they and other managers and leaders are a lot more effective than they really are. If they are, then why do we continue to get the following results ...

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Unfortunately, most Leaders & Managers in business (private or publicly-held) and government are not Winning Leaders & Managers! On the surface this may sound like a brash overgeneralization. However,

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The desired results are well known and consistent across businesses of varying size, industries, ownership, and geographies - financial growth, profitability, market share, efficiency, return on investment, equity, net assets employed, etc. However, what is much less known, as I’ve learned over my decades of consulting, coaching, and applied research with both businesses and owners, leaders, managers, is their understanding, as well as lack of capitalizing, on those success shaping forces within their very own control. So, what are these ‘root causes’ that drive these financial number “effects” that businesses seek and must have to survive and succeed?

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