In this article, Stephanie Soler explains how a simple shift in communication can help you to become both a trusted and respected leader. As children, we learn the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated. There’s a major flaw in this thinking, and I see it again and again as I work with executives who struggle to connect with and influence the people around them. The simple truth is that people are different. We can actually…

Marja Fox shares a valuable article for leaders on how to cultivate loyalty in the workplace. I previously wrote about being accused of lacking loyalty for leaving an organization of which I was a part for two years. Though my departure was prior to the Great Resignation, that ongoing event makes it clear that I’m not alone in feeling that today’s corporations aren’t always worth sticking around. In the prior blog, I make the case that employers have only themselves…

Amy Giddon shares key findings from the book Lessons from the Geese on how to lead your team towards near-perfect formation. I was really nervous for my first staff meeting. I was a young vice president and had just been given a new role, one that quadrupled the number of people on my team and gave me oversight of a technical area beyond my current expertise. What should I say to the team? What would build their trust and confidence…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Nicolai Nielsen.  Nicolai is a global leadership and transformation expert, and a leading authority on developing human-centered organizations that shape the future. He was with McKinsey & Company for almost 10 years, most recently as an Associate Partner in the New York Office. He has worked with more than 30 Fortune 500 companies and government ministries across 5 continents globally. His work includes designing and delivering leadership development and culture change programs that have reached…

Caroline Taich shares an evergreen post on how to become a confident leader. Dave was one of my first clients as a management consultant. He was in a rotational leadership program at the regional utility. He became the leader of procurement for the construction services category overnight – without any training or preparation. My job was to guide him through the procurement process to identify cost savings. Dave was taking a risk. In this new role, he was going to…

Priyanka Ghosh shares an article that identifies eight essential qualities in an effective leader and how what shapes them makes them.  The stories you tell are the stories that define you.  As you travel through you career to create the well-paved road from individual contribution to team leader and finally to the leadership role that you covet, you learn to tell stories through your actions.  Actions those are synonymous with leading by example.  But largely, it is these stories that…

Tobias Baer explores a question many may have on their mind right now. This morning I found myself in disbelief and incredible sadness that once again, there is a war on European soil. What will it take to end it? In my psychology studies, I found a voice of authority that can give us a perspective in these dark hours. In her monumental, raging book “The Body in Pain,” Elaine Scarry, a distinguished writer frequently cited even by leading psychologists…

Darryl Stickel was recently interviewed on the podcast Positive Turbulence where he shares a formula for building trust. Rob Brodnick: Welcome to the Positive Turbulence Podcast: Stories from the Periphery here, we journey to the edge to talk to turbulators about their experiences creating positive change. Hi, I’m Rob Brodnick. Karyn Zuidinga: And I’m Karyn Zuidinga in sharing these stories, these perspectives on innovation, creativity, change, and leadership. We hope to generate some positive turbulence for you. Rob Brodnick: Consider…

Mark Ledden shares an article that explains why self-orientation is the most important component of trust.  The math of David Maister’s Trust Equation[1] is designed to make a simple point: of the four components of trust, self-orientation is the most important. His argument makes a certain intuitive sense. If I think you are all about getting what is best for you and not at all concerned with what is best for me, I am not likely to trust you no…

If you feel guilty for reading fiction, Amanda Setili’s article on how fiction books can improve leadership skills will remove guilt. Put your feet up and enjoy. I’m deep into The Expanse book series, and it never ceases to amaze me how many insights and inspirations I get from reading fiction, especially science fiction. Fiction makes it easier to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and to understand different perspectives: how others feel, and how they solve problems that might…

Believe it whether you want to or not, exercise can improve your performance as a leader. Jeffery Perry explains how in this article. John F. Kennedy once said, “Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.” There is arguably no greater dynamic and creative intellectual activity than personal leadership. Leaders have significant daily demands as they manage teams and engage with internal and…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Erica Reischer with Dr. Reischer Coaching.  Erica is a clinical psychologist, author, and executive coach. Drawing on over 20 years of experience as a psychologist, business leader, and management consultant with McKinsey & Company, Erica partners with leaders and the organizations they serve to hone leadership skills, enhance teamwork, support organizational change, and optimize workplaces. In addition to her clinical and coaching work, Erica is a contributing writer for The New York Times, The Washington…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Guilherme Bcheche. Guilherme has already dedicated more than 12 years to supporting leaders and teams in complex strategic and organizational challenges. Having worked for several years at McKinsey & Company leading projects for large corporations around the world, Guilherme is focused on supporting leaders and their businesses in their transformation journeys. He is a professor at Fundação Dom Cabral Business School, where he teaches leadership and strategy. He is a psychoanalyst, executive coach, specialist in…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Koen Veltman with OrganizationBuilders. Koen is a true believer in business as a force for good. Koen has over ten years of experience as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, Aberkyn, and SparkOptimus. And is the founder of OrganizationBuilders. Building hands-on expertise in over 40 organizations in transformation topics like designing and delivering substantial scale change, organizational design, leadership development, Agile, Lean, strategy to execution, culture change at scale, large re-organzations, and front line customer…

  Peter Costa shares a lesson from history to illustrate why leadership without management renders a leader ineffective and possibly dangerous.  What do you think of when you see the word “management”? Probably nothing good.  Management seems to have become a dirty word, the antithesis of what a real leader is supposed to be. I believe it’s time to rethink that view.  To be a truly effective leader, you need to develop a full suite of both leadership AND management…

  In this post, Dan Markovitz identifies the weak spots in  productivity hacks and explains why they don’t work. Leaders in organizations are always seeking to improve employee productivity (including their own). All too often, that quest goes no further than time management training provided by the HR department. Those classes cover the pros and cons of Inbox Zero, the Pomodoro technique, the Eisenhower matrix, Getting Things Done, and countless other approaches that tantalize us with visions of the promised…

  Nora Ghaoui shares an article that identifies how to read the signals that predict what people will do next.  Have you ever been in a situation where something happened, say, a relationship ended, and you thought, “I should have seen it coming”? Would you have wanted to see it earlier so you could do something about it? You can. You can see things coming by paying attention to the clues in people’s behaviour that tell you what they will…

  Remote onboarding presents a few new challenges; luckily, Tineke Keesmaat shares an article that offers seven ideas to help leaders transition to a new role.  Leaders transitioning into a new role bring with them fresh ideas and great energy. They want to hit the ground running and make their mark. But, many leaders are wondering how can they do so in the context of today’s workplace?  As the pandemic continues, so too, will our need to work remotely. Leaders…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome John Long with Satoe Solutions.  Jack Long was a consultant at McKinsey focusing on leadership development, organizational transformation, and strategic planning.  Following that he as an executive at IDEMIA where he lead integration and transformation, strategic planning, and value creation efforts.  Prior to McKinsey, he was an Innovation Fellow at Oxford University leading teams building startups based on University IP.  Jack holds a PhD in nanoengineering from Johns Hopkins and spent 8 years on active…

  Caroline Taich shares how to make the mindset shift from uncertain operator to confident corporate leader. Dave was one of my first clients as a management consultant. He was in a rotational leadership program at the regional utility. He became the leader of procurement for the construction services category overnight – without any training or preparation. My job was to guide him through the procurement process to identify cost savings. Dave was taking a risk. In this new role,…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Wendy Richards with MarTel Advisors. Member of the Board for AMC Natural Drinks, Wendy advises this family-held Spanish corporation on international strategy and leadership development. Beyond the boardroom, she builds team cohesion through executive coaching and change management, serving PE and Venture-backed firms. An experienced Chief Marketing Officer in the investment industry, Wendy’s clients include Makena Capital Management and Altegris Investments. She led telecoms finance for HSBC in London and the design and roll-out of…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Adriana Mascolli Fontes. Adriana is a former Senior Expert in the Organizations Practice at McKinsey with a  focus on Organization and Leadership development. Since leaving the Firm in 2012, she has been collaborating with top boutique leadership consulting groups like Mobius Executive Leadership in designing and delivering leadership development programs. She is a certified Coach (ICF) and holds several certifications in the field of Organization, Culture and Leadership Development. She spent 11 years at McKinsey,…

  Leadership is not a one-size-fits all position. Every leader adopts a different style based on their strengths, passions, and talents. Bernie Heine provides a process that can help you understand your strengths and leverage the overlap of passion and talent. The Zone of Leadership explained Get INTO Your Leadership Zone. What are YOU really good at? What are you passionate about? We are talking here about knowing yourself, knowing what’s really important to you, what you do very well,…

  Robyn Bolton explains why Visual Thinking (VTS) sessions improve creative problem solving and critical thinking skills and provide major benefits to executives. “It was quite a sight! A dozen senior executives from a big, conservative financial services firm, all sitting on the floor in front of a painting, talking about what it could mean and why they think that.” On a typical dreary November day, and Suzi and I were sitting in the café inside Boston’s Museum of Fine…

  Leadership has its own set of unique challenges during times of crises; Luiz Zorzella provides a post that identifies a few of the common obstacles faced and how to overcome them. During a crisis, we are all pushed to make strategic, life-changing decisions. Often we need to make these decisions under a lot of uncertainty and with incomplete and faulty information. Below, I review some of my favourite cognitive biases with a couple of examples of how they may…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Ashu Dalvi with South Pointe Strategy.  Ashu has spent over 15 years as a consultant with various firms, including A.T. Kearney and Booz Allen Hamilton. He loves working on ambiguous problems and has developed and implemented transformational business strategies for tech, transportation, and non-profit clients. Ashu recently founded South Pointe Strategy, a consultancy that helps clients in all sectors build operating models that support their business ambition. Just prior, he was building out the strategy…