Charlotte Otto was the person, P&G leadership turned to for communication counsel in times of positive and negative stress. For 20 of her 33 years at the company, she was at the center of communications, working with 5 CEOs and many bold leaders.
Pam Moret is by training a lawyer and by experience and her own description, a “problem person.” She is someone who loves “diving into aggressive development and challenging problems. I came out of the womb that way. I prefer living with the consequences of leading.”
A couple of years ago at a national health care conference, I joined a small breakout group discussion and met Deborah Gage, CEO of Medecision, across the table. I don’t remember much about the discussion, but I know we parted, exchanging business cards, with (at least on my part) a clear desire to talk more…
John Geisler, vice president and CIO of Cargill, was a guest 8-10 years ago on an internet radio show my Aveus Partner Linda Ireland and I hosted every week back then. Between that time and today, John has led some of the largest, global change initiatives inside the company.
Think of change leadership as ‘stealth’ organizing. You know those great experiences when you meet someone for the first time and immediately the conversation feels natural, with common values and principles popping to the forefront in the first few sentences?
Positive is good. Negative is bad. Right? For example, positive stress in an organization typically helps drive towards a desired outcome. The challenge is to harness the positive to your advantage. Let’s contrast.
That headline was one of the last things Brad Hewitt, President and CEO of Thrivent Financial, said to me when we sat down together for a conversation. It came after a fast hour of “Brad-isms” as he dubbed them, and I have to say, this was one fun conversation.
If you’ve been in business for more than a few years, you’ve likely seen your own organization, and probably others, launch ‘research’ that ends up on the shelf. Or someone tries to use research for purposes that were not intended when it was collected – and probably not legitimate to the methodology used – or…
I’ve known and respected Pat Donovan, CEO of Bremer Bank, for many years – ‘socially’ as they say. Out my office window I look across a couple of city blocks to the Bremer sign atop their corporate office tower. One day, seeing that sign, I decided to reach out and ask Pat if he would…
“My clients get paid for making successful decisions. My job is to provide the insights that increase the probabilities that they will make better decisions.” — Frank Pleticha
