Greg Baker, on July 31, 2015
What’s that you say? Your organization has “communication problems”? I’ve heard that one before. It’s almost as common as “A guy walks into a bar…”, but not as funny. If there is a funny part it is that people often speak with apparent authority about “communication problems” without understanding what causes them at the root. Consequently, when we don’t understand problems at their root, we can never solve them. This article drills in on five top causes of business communication problems. It helps expose communication problems as mostly symptoms, not core problems.
Greg Baker, on March 19, 2014
There are seven critical elements you need to consider when planning your Consultant Development Program if you want to truly enhance the level and type of service your professional service employees provide to their clients. We refer to these elements as The Seven Pillars. Together they make up, and hold up, a complete approach to building effective consulting organizations.
Greg Baker, on June 1, 2012
This article and its related blog series is about managing unintentional conflict in business, and the dramatic benefits of doing so. But why unintentional conflict? It turns out that most conflict in business is unintentional. Yes, there are those who intentionally pick fights, damage the reputations of others, stir up controversy, and otherwise operate in a self-serving manner at the expense of others. However, in our businesses, if you take away all of that intentional conflict you are still left with a majority of the conflict.
How can that be? Most folks in business seem like decent people. If you get rid of the “bad eggs” how could there still be that much conflict? The truth is that most businesses and those of us in them create unintentional conflict – some more than others. A certain amount of this is inevitable. After all, we are not perfect. However, as I will discuss in this article, there is much that can be done to see and avoid creating unintentional conflict.
Greg Baker, on October 5, 2007
Last month we talked about the nature of customer focused leadership and organizations. But how do you know if you have a customer focused organization? How do you build one? This month I want to share a consultant’s secret for understanding and building customer focused organizations.
(more…)
Greg Baker, on September 5, 2007
With all of the things that companies are doing today to become more customer focused, you don’t often hear what that exactly means to the organization and its leadership. To help with that, I would like to offer some perspective on what makes leaders customer focused, and some tips on what you can do to help your own organization improve in this area. In particular, how do we develop customer focused leadership that supports business operations and the people that deliver customer focused products and services?