Executive Derailers and Workplace Conflict

Oil and water: Are there some people in your organization who just can't seem to get along? Conflictual relationships among co-workers distract, confuse, and interfere with employee productivity and morale. A difficult executive can affect the entire culture of the organization. A difficult executive is one who is exhibiting problematic behaviors such as arrogance, temper tantrums, aggressiveness, or analysis paralysis. One executive I worked with would throw his lunch against the wall if an employee forgot his condiment preferences. Later in the article I'll tell you how this worked out. 

Is it me or is it you? It is difficult to address these problems with executives who display derailing behaviors because one might wonder, "am I being too demanding or rigid, or is this behavior really over the top".  The good news is that there are positive coaching tools that can accurately measure bad behavior and compare the results to other successful executives. The executive mentioned (we'll call him "Mr. Wall") above scored in the high-risk range in the "Excitable" category of the assessment. He needed a yardstick to help himself gauge which behaviors are acceptable in the workplace and which are not.  (click here to view full article)

The "Dark Side" of Executive Leadership

Identify Your Dark Side: It's lonely at the top. Just ask Jeff Skilling or Bernie Madoff. Do you think they asked for feedback about their performance or wondered about how their destructive psychological patterns could bring down a company? Do you think their subordinates, who were dependent on them for their salaries and bonuses would have told them the truth?  Does the prevailing power structure in most organizations preclude getting honest feedback and therefore invite recklessness and abuse?  Does your company utilize any sort of assessment tool to evaluate destructive executive tendencies (also known as "derailers")?

Executives are often popular, impressive and socially-skilled individuals which makes it difficult to see negative traits. These negative traits are intentionally hidden, we all put our best foot forward. However, derailers act like "sleeper cells"--emerging when the executive is under extreme stress. The perfect storm for these potential organizational atom bombs may never occur, or may occur so rarely that it is easy to dismiss their existence. However, when they do happen, they have so much impact they can destroy an entire team or organization.  (click here to view full article)

Being Realistic About Working With Family Members

Family business are notoriously problematic. Just say the words "family business" and you are likely to elicit raised eyebrows and a knowing roll of the eyes. Many families kill the goose that lays the golden eggs by engaging in power struggles, resentment, and poor planning. It is far more common for emotional difficulties to ruin the business than poor business conditions. Everyone knows working with family is difficult, but few know where to turn to mitigate the risks and increase the odds of success.

At least 50% of family-owned businesses do not succeed through the 2nd generation.  Entrepreneurs are often very independent and don't rely on outside advice. They put off naming a successor and minimize complaints and conflict from family members. They think they beat the odds once, and figure they'll do it again.  It is easy to underestimate the challenges inherent in mixing family values with business realities and families tend to ignore problems until they get so big they are unmanageable.

Transitioning family members into the business and dealing with leadership succession is a very difficult process which entrepreneurs often don't have the skill to navigate. The skills and traits to build a successful business are different from the skills and traits needed to identify and manage a long leadership succession plan. Their advisors, i.e. lawyers and accountants, are not trained to deal with the emotional issues that plague familes. (click here to view full article)