CEO & Boards – Meaford

When the going gets tough, the tough get going (to Cancun)

February 19, 2021

Similar to a post that I wrote in December about “A lesson in (poor) Leadership”, a political leader is once again in the news, accused of failing to lead from the front. In this case, it is Texas senator Ted Cruz who reportedly left Houston for a vacation escape to Cancun at the height of the ...

A lesson in (poor) leadership

December 30, 2020

Often, I do not have to look further than the newspaper for stories of strong and poor leadership. Today’s multiple stories of Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips travelling to the Caribbean island of St Barts for vacation is one such example. While this article involves political leadership, and therefore will raise partisan emotions, it is not meant ...

Courage

December 5, 2020

Everyone knows that an executive’s job is to achieve the outcomes that they have been tasked to achieve. “Say it > Do it, No Excuses” is a common mantra used to describe performance expectations for a senior leader. As people rise in corporate ranks, what many leaders are sometimes slow to grasp is that their ...

Think Like An Executive

November 17, 2020

I was recently asked by a client to be a guest on a monthly leadership series that they host for their approximately 200 leaders in their 1500-person business unit. The topic that I was asked to speak on was “How to Think like an Executive”. The audience ranged first line managers to vice-president level. Given the ...

COVID-19 Realities

September 17, 2020

Like many, I am trying to follow COVID guidelines to limit physical business and social interactions, keep my bubble small, wear a mask when out and about, hand wash and sanitize frequently, but I must admit that it is getting harder to stay as diligent as I was in the early months of the pandemic. ...

Working post-COVID… for the times, they are a-changin’

May 4, 2020

You may have seen the headline “OpenText won’t reopen half of its physical offices post COVID-19 pandemic”. In the article, the writer says Opentext’s CEO Mark Barrenechea “is saying out loud what a lot of C-level executives are thinking. The new normal will require less commercial real estate as the capital expenses required can be deployed ...

Managing the Attrition Bubble during the COVID Downturn

April 9, 2020

If you are not managing your “Attrition Bubble” now, expect it to impact your ability to grow once a recovery starts. If you don’t know what an Attrition Bubble is, read on… In every business, there is a natural employee attrition of departing people that takes place every year. Generally, attrition is measured in two ...

Leading and Managing through the COVID Downturn

March 29, 2020

Thank you all for your likes, comments and shares of my previous post, “What do Covid-19 and Y2K have in common”. As I read your comments, it struck me that it may be valuable to some share some of my learnings from other downturns. I have now been through six significant downturns or economic crises: the recession ...

What do COVID-19 and Y2K have in Common?

March 16, 2020

I am stepping out on a limb and predicting the future, but I think COVID-19 may cause some behaviours at tech companies like those just before and into the aftermath of Y2K. For those not into their business careers 25 years ago, the need to remediate or replace old software systems that were based on ...

Crying

November 11, 2019

Spoiler Alert…rant ahead I don’t get it. As employers, we ask our employees to bring 100% of themselves to work… be who you are… yet it is okay to have a stress cry at home, but it is not okay to cry at work. Why is it okay for a person to get stressed at ...

Category: CEO & Boards