Caroline Taich shares the second installment of a two-part series on social sector partnerships.  In a recent blog post I began exploring the question of how to take social sector partnerships from good to great.  We looked at data showing that employers can increase their investment in environmental, social, and governance sustainability. I now explore the role of non-profits.  By adapting planning, messaging, and reporting with employers, I believe non-profits can achieve greater outcomes.  This hypothesis stems from my…

  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…