About Ian Cook

Ian Cook, presenter and consultant, works with managers who want to increase their effectiveness as a leader and build a stronger team. To book Ian for a training seminar, team facilitation or keynote presentation, call toll-free at: 1-888-FULCRUM (385-2786) or e-mail: ian@888fulcrum.com. For more articles and book reviews of interest to managers please go to: www.888fulcrum.com.

Another Angle on Employee Motivation

April 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Soccer_Shootout

It's the end of regulation time in a soccer game and the score is tied. It's time for the shoot out to determine the victor. You are the coach. How should you advise your five shooters, each of whom will get one shot at close range? "I want you all to concentrate on our scoring at least three times", OR "I want you to concentrate on our not missing more than two times." You first reaction is probably like mine, the first option, of course! It's a positive message, a positive objective, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communicating, Employee Motivation Tagged With: , ,

Developing Gen Y Leaders

April 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Millenials_at_a_table(Sx)

What leadership competencies do newly minted Millenial employees need to develop, from the get go? And what strengths do they, as a cohort, bring to the workplace? We hear so much "gen Y bashing" these days. We hear the stereotypes: unfocused, texting obsessed, ADHD prone, the world owes me recognition and, BTW, I'm pretty well ready for the C-suite…now! The Center for Creative Leadership set out to learn more. They conducted a study of about 500 managers and reported the results last year … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership Development Tagged With: , , ,

They Feel Entitled. How about Engaged Too?

April 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Dollar–Sign–Floating

They're either disengaged or under engaged in their work but they very much intend to stay with their current employer for a long time. This is what a new study by Modern Survey revealed. For government workers, 80% were less than engaged but 60% plan to stay. Not like the private sector, you say? Well, how about 66% not engaged and 56% hanging around? Furthermore, the percentage of employees, public and private, who felt their total compensation package is competitive is in the mid fifties. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement Tagged With: , ,

Teleworkers Perform But Do They Rise?

March 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Woman_w_PhoneHeadset2_Sx

The typical teleworker in the US is a 49 years old, university educated, salaried individual in a management or professional role, says the Telework Research Network. Some of these just love the opportunity to indulge themselves through the satisfaction of doing knowledge or creative work that both engages them and challenges them. But many of them also want career advancement. They want to get ahead. This is where an interesting article from Talent Management Magazine enters the picture. It … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change Management

Developing Leaders for the Horizon

March 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Leaders Make the Future, Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World by Bob Johansen

They say Wayne Gretzky was a step ahead of other players because he skated to where the puck was going to be. Are you developing your up-and-coming leaders for where your markets and your environment are going to be? Will your leaders be prepared for the daunting complexity that's coming? Or are you preparing them for today or maybe just the next year or two? The Leadership Circle, whose 360 assessment profile and Culture Survey we use with our clients, says that even today's (forget about … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership Development Tagged With: , , ,

Employee Engagement – You’re Only Part Way There

March 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment
front-align-150x150

Research by TowersWatson has revealed that to generate a climate where your employees contribute a consistently high percentage of their capacity you need more that just "engagement." You must add into the mix enablement (a better term for what used to be called empowerment), and employee well-being. Here, very briefly, is what constitutes each element of what they call the "3 E's": Engagement – employee commitment, both rational and emotional, to contributing discretionary (i.e. more … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement Tagged With: , ,

Book Review: To Sell is Human

February 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel H. Pink

"We're all in sales" says author Daniel Pink. In fact, in a Gallup study people reported spending 40% of their time working in what Pink calls "non-sales selling," convincing/influencing/moving people to decide or do that does not involve anyone making a purchase. Dan Pink is always intriguing. Let's look at a few things his book has to say that apply to managers. In my experience, the higher a manager is in the hierarchy, the more frequently he/she engages in non-sales selling and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change Management, Communicating Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Three Intriguing Thoughts from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

February 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Jeff-Bezos

A recent HBR blog podcast interviewed the CEO of Amazon who, in a major study reported in the Harvard Business Review's Jan/Feb issue, was ranked #2 of global CEO's. The late Steve Jobs was #1. Jeff Bezos is an intriguing guy. He permits interviews sparingly and is somewhat of a contrarian around some commonly held business beliefs. In the short audio, Bezos makes three points that I think are worth CEO's and managers hearing about. He sees the DNA of Amazon as that of an explorer, vs. a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change Management, Leadership Tagged With: , ,

Plant Your Talent Investments in Fertile Ground

January 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Spreading Seeds

I recently heard an interesting presentation by Holly Kortright, Senior VP, HR of Deltek. She was talking about where her company has decided to direct their available resources for employee capacity development. They target four areas: High Potentials for leadership positions High Performers People possessing critical, hard to replace, skills People in key positions (e.g. long experience and intimate knowledge of key work processes) With the US government entering a time of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Talent Management Tagged With: , , ,

Another Slice on the Best CEO’s

January 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Adam Bryant

Adam Bryant writes a column in the New York Times called The Corner Office. He has selected 70 of the over 200 interviews he has done with CEO's for his column and put some core insights from these into a book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEO's and How to Lead and Succeed. You can hear a short interview of Bryant in a recent issue of Knowledge@Wharton. In addition to sharing the CEOs' lessons and tips around both managing and leading, the author … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , ,