This posting is just to announce our new product, Leading Change without Authority. This is a unique product that provides ongoing support during major initiatives.
If the topic is of interest, more information is available, including a brochure, at the webpage titled Leading Change without Authority.
Thank you.
Ed Oakley
Chief Change Management Officer
“The Secret” video and now the book have received an enormous amount of attention all over the world in the last six months or so. It has been an amazing marketing coup! It is based on the Law of Attraction which is certainly not new. One of the primary Focus Factors we teach is “you get more of what you focus on.” That is the same concept. If you’ve read either of our books, ”Enlightened Leadership” or “Leadership Made Simple,” you know that our Forward Focus(TM) model is also consistent with the basic concepts of “moving toward what you focus on” found also in ”The Secret.”
From the first time I saw the video, I felt there was something missing. This might be controversial, and it is my strongly held perspective. And it is important in our leadership roles… Read the rest of this entry »
The Sunday NY Times published an interesting article, “What Consultants May Not Know About Leadership.” It was actually a book review for Bill George’s (former Chairman of Medtronics) new book, “True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership.”
The suggestion is made that perhaps leadership cannot be taught, therefore that a lot of leadership development efforts have been a waste of time and money. The reviewer’s quote was “much of the money spent on leadership development has been wasted.” While this might be true, I would like to challenge some of the thinking Read the rest of this entry »
I just read Warren Buffet’s annual letter to the stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway, his company that has outperformed the S&P 500 consistently for over 40 years. It was fascinating reading, and I recommend it to everyone. I immediately bought more of their stock! 
You can find the letter here.
I want to focus on one element of leadership of the many that come from that letter. Read the rest of this entry »
There seems to be a flurry of interest in change management by our readers - at least those words. In fact, over the years, a majority of our work with clients has been related to managing change initiatives - which is a major responsibility of leadership.
Think about it. Many change initiatives are across organizational boundaries, thus authority is limited for any manager or individual responsible for the initiative. At most, there might be some “dotted line” responsibility to the change agent. Therefore, leadership is required. The change agent must be able to Read the rest of this entry »
I enjoyed a 60 minute interview on February 15th by Wayne Hurlbert, host of Blog Business Success. There you can find a pretty thorough audio introduction of the book Leadership Made Simple: Practical Solutions to Your Greatest Management Challenges, including how the book came to be, some of the companies involved in the case studies and examples, description of the Framework for Leadership(TM) and example stories for each of the five steps of the Framework.
You’ll find it listed as Ed Oakley: Leadership Made Simple.
I think you might find it valuable and entertaining. Go listen to it!
Best regards,
I was working with a leadership development team in Ft. Worth, TX last week with some of our self-awareness assessments, and it brought back memories of my Hewlett-Packard days. HP always did a lot of management and leadership training, for which I am grateful. But of all the classes I attended over twelve years, THE most valuable was the one related to Read the rest of this entry »
With my newfound clarity about “making leadership simple” being the brand essence for Enlightened Leadership Solutions, I found myself in San Diego last week interviewing a CEO about their greatest people issues as part of a research project I’m doing for my next publication.
As head of a fast-growing company, the CEO quickly got to what he considered was his greatest management-leadership challenge, and it was not motivating people, or getting people to be accountable, or developing leadership, or getting projects back on track - none of the traditional leadership issues. His greatest management challenge Read the rest of this entry »
I had a powerful experience today with someone using “our own” leadership tools to help me gain a new level of clarity about our business. I have been wrestling with “what is the brand I would want Enlightened Leadership Solutions known for, at least the part related to leadership and management development? What distinguishes us from everyone else out there?”
I had an extraordinary and seemingly “accidental” opportunity to be… Read the rest of this entry »
A client sent me an email letting me know he was going to be taking over responsibility for a different team - entirely new team for him. He asked if I had any tips for the situation. It occurred to me that many managers face this same situation and it might be helpful to discuss.
The Framework for Leadership(TM) is a great tool for that first meeting of the team (as well as every one after that). That first meeting is a great opportunity to establish the context for how you want to work with them, not so much with your words, but with your specific actions and behaviors. Some of the clarity I would want to establish includes: Read the rest of this entry »