Articles: Leadership Transformation
Here is a list of publications focusing on Leadership Transformation by Schaffer Consulting consultants.
The Merger Dividend, Ron Ashkenas, Suzanne Francis, and Rick Heinick, Harvard Business Review, July-August 2011.
M&As present unique opportunities to develop leaders. Don't let the next deal slip through your fingers.
Request a Copy How to Hire a CEO That Lasts, Ron Ashkenas and Justin Wasserman, People Matters, October 2010.
Hiring a successful CEO is not rocket science. All that companies need to do is go beyond the traditional process of selection and create mechanisms for exploring the inert capabilities of the candidate.
Request a Copy Stop Solving Your Business Problems, Keith Michaelson and Markus Spiegel, Leader to Leader, Spring 2010.
Make the critical shift from solving problems to challenging people to deliver real results.
Request a Copy Seven Deadly Sins of Making Demands, Ron Ashkenas, The School Administrator, May 2010.
Leaders at the Say Yes to Education Foundation learned how to make demands -- and transformed both teachers and students in the process.
Request a Copy Four Mistakes Leaders Keep Making, Robert H. Schaffer, Harvard Business Review, September 2010.
The history of business has been marked by a dizzying rate of change. What hasn't changed very much, however, are four fundamental behaviors, deeply rooted in the managerial psyche, that block organizational progress and performance. They are: failing to set proper expectations; excusing subordinates from pursuit of overall objectives; colluding with staff experts and consultants; and waiting while subordinates prepare, prepare, prepare.
Request a Copy Beat the Change Management Trap: Your Organization is More Ready to Change Than You Think, Wes Siegal and Jonathan Stearn, Leader to Leader, Number 55, Winter 2010.
This article is addressed to organizational leaders who are driving change initiatives, and discusses the reasons they might unconsciously accept a long-term approach to organizational change, rather than demand results. And, it shows how asking for rapid results can sharpen and strengthen the long-term program.
Request a Copy Best Foot Forward, Matthew McCreight and Ronald Ashkenas, Northeast Executive, Fall 2009.
This article is an excellent overview of our firm and how we help our clients realize their fullest potential.
Request a Copy Yes, You Can Simplify Your Organization, Ron Ashkenas, Forbes.com: August 17, 2009.
This article describes several ways you can improve results by confronting and reducing complexity and information overload in your organization.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/17/simplify-organization-complexity-leadership-managing-information.html
Request a Copy Seven Sins of Delegating, Ron Ashkenas, BusinessWeek.com, November 3, 2009.
Just because your CEO is uncomfortable making tough demands on you, it doesn't mean you shouldn't take the initiative on your own.
Request a Copy Passive managers; getting paid to show up at work, Erin Conroy (The Associated Press), Washington Post, September 1, 2009.
Managers are expected to make demands of other people. So why do many find it so hard?
Request a Copy Leader as Capacity Builder, Ronald N. Ashkenas and Robert H. Schaffer, Leader to Leader, Winter 2007.
Many senior executives are trapped by a self-defeating management pattern. This article provides a powerful model of how to succeed in a world of accelerating change.
Request a Copy Simplicity-Minded Management, Ron Ashkenas, Harvard Business Review, December 2007.
Managers are frequently frustrated by their organization's complexity. Yet very few have developed a strategy for simplification. We have identified four ways that managers can streamline their organizations and improve business results: 1) combat organizational mitosis, 2) streamline products and services, 3) fix inefficient processes, and 4) improve managerial behaviors. Also available in Spanish.
Request a Copy Stand and Deliver, Katie Beavan, Across The Board, January/February 2006
Everyone expects you to make a difference from your first day on the job. This article describes how to make that happen.
Request a Copy The Aging Workforce Challenge, Keith Michaelson and Leslie Rittenhouse, Electric Light & Power, May/June 2006.
This article discusses how American Electric Power (AEP) turned supervisors into mentors to build leadership development into the daily job. They were able to capture decades of supervisory experience before it walked out the door.
Request a Copy Leadership Excellence - Development is a full-time job, Robert H. Schaffer, Leadership Excellence, January 2006.
This article describes how Avery Dennison yielded over $50 million in new revenues in their first year of using rapid-cycle projects to develop leadership capabilities.
Request a Copy Turning Giants, Robert H. Schaffer, American Executive, May 2006.
When a company is in difficulty, the CEO is so worried about not getting further behind, they can't imagine investing time and resources trying to build grassroots change capability. Fortunately, they don't have to make that choice.
Request a Copy Interview with Katie Beavan: Learning to lead can lift a career, Jane S. Hill, DallasNews.com, April 17, 2005.
The ability to guide projects provides management opportunities for those who'll stretch themselves.
Request a Copy Development and Results Go Hand in Hand, Ronald N. Ashkenas and Robert H. Schaffer, IMPA-HR News, August 2005.
HR professionals can add value to an organization by focusing on organizational results as a key measure of their own success. (This article is available in Spanish.)
Request a Copy Rapid Results Spark Strategic Momentum: Chapter 10 of Rapid Results!, by Robert H. Schaffer, Ronald N. Ashkenas, and Associates, Jossey-Bass 2005.
The power of Rapid Results goes beyond the effective implementation of strategy. These projects can open a new approach to how strategic planning is carried out and how it can contribute to progress.
Strategic planning becomes an on-going, iterative process and the entire organization becomes involved in its evolution. The how-to of integrating thought and action in a strategic process does not have to be complex. While the way is often challenging and always unpredictable, there is a firm logic both to getting it started and to keeping it going.
Request a Copy Develop Leaders Through Results Achievement: Chapter 11 of Rapid Results!, by Robert H. Schaffer, Ronald N. Ashkenas, and Associates, Jossey-Bass 2005.
Quite frequently when their companies fail it is not because leaders lack the knowledge of what needs doing but rather because they lack the ability to make it happen. This chapter urges those responsible for developing leaders to ask managers to strive for and achieve tangible results and shows how these results-driven experiences can be designed into formal training programs as well.
Request a Copy Challenge for Leaders: You Can Make It Happen! Will You?: Chapter 12 of Rapid Results!, by Robert H. Schaffer, Ronald N. Ashkenas, and Associates, Jossey-Bass 2005.
Producing Rapid Results while building long-term capacity for change, in the context of longer-term visions and strategies, is the challenge we have laid out for executives in this book. It does not require substantial training, a long-term executive education program, or any other kind of “reformation” or rewiring. On the contrary, you can move into this territory at once. All it requires is the will to get started, to experiment, and to learn along the way.
Request a Copy Results-Fueled Leadership Development, Robert H. Schaffer, Leader to Leader, Number 32, Spring 2004.
This article describes how to make bottom-line organization achievement a centerpiece of leadership development, rather than relying on classroom project activities to develop leaders.
Request a Copy Improving Project Results: Operating 'Below-the-Line' to Produce Real Value, Nadim Matta, The Conference Board's Executive Action, Number 125, December 2004.
Project teams and their sponsors rarely acknowledge the risk that their project's outcomes will not translate into the intended benefits to the organization. How can you keep a project on track for real results?
Request a Copy Leadership Development on the Job, Katie Beavan, Terry Lockhart and Keith Michaelson. 2003 Handbook of Business Strategy.
Who has time to send senior managers off on leadership retreats anymore? Make them learn by doing.
Request a Copy General Electric‘s Leadership WorkOut, Dave Ulrich, Steve Kerr and Ron Ashkenas, Leader to Leader, Spring 2002.
This article describes how GE developed WorkOut and used it to transform the leadership of its organization; gives step-by-step details.
Request a Copy Freeing Managers to Innovate, Matthias Bellmann and Robert H. Schaffer, Harvard Business Review, June 2001.
Big companies often have difficulties capitalizing on their wide-ranging resources. Siemens identified a key to success: People must believe they have “permission” to venture into uncharted territory.
Request a Copy A ‘Merger of Equals’ and Other Big Lies, Ron Ashkenas, Leader to Leader, Number 15, Winter 2000.
A prime contributor to merger failure is the tendency of senior management to make soothing but untrue statements, instead of communicating realistically and helping stakeholders grapple with the positive and negative implications.
Request a Copy Integration Managers: Special Leaders for Special Times, Ronald N. Ashkenas and Suzanne C. Francis, Harvard Business Review, November-December 2000.
This article explores the work of the Integration Manager. It draws on the diverse experiences of five integration managers, and distills them into four strategies for driving integration success.
Request a Copy Breaking Through Global Boundaries, Ron Ashkenas, Executive Excellence, July 1999.
To become global, companies must address these challenges: establishing a workable structure; hiring global "supermanagers"; managing for the global environment; embracing cultural differences; avoiding parochialism; designing unifying mechanisms; and overcoming complexity.
Request a Copy Leading the Boundaryless Organization, Ron Ashkenas, 2000 Handbook of Business Strategy, New York: Faulkner & Gray, 1999.
Leaders of today’s organizations need a zest for uncertainty, a passion for ferment, and a focus on short-term results. This article outlines the challenges leaders face in creating a flexible, fluid organization.
Request a Copy Organizations of the Future: Back to the Basics at the Speed of Light, Ron Ashkenas, Collaborate ’99: an On-line Conference for Human Resource Professionals, www.odnetwork.org, 1999.
Technology has enabled a pace and pattern of information flow that has rendered many organizational forms obsolete. Companies must learn to balance new opportunities with traditional management disciplines like focus, accountability, measures, plans and rewards.
Request a Copy Making the Deal Real: How GE Capital Integrates Acquisitions, Ronald N. Ashkenas, Lawrence J. DeMonaco and Suzanne C. Francis, Harvard Business Review, January-February 1998.
Integrating acquisitions has traditionally been seen as a series of one-time tasks. This article argues that it should be viewed as a manageable process that can be codified and improved over time. The authors provide four critical lessons and a process framework for aiding integration efforts.
Request a Copy The Boundaryless Organization: A Director’s Guide, Ron Ashkenas, Director’s Monthly, Volume 22, Number 9, September 1998.
This article shows directors how they can leverage their individual expertise and influence to help their organizations to achieve greater speed, flexibility, integration and innovation by becoming more "boundaryless."
Request a Copy Planning For Succession, Robert H. Schaffer, Journal of Management Consulting, Volume 9, Number 3, May 1997.
A personal account of succession planning in a unique and innovative consulting firm, with consideration of identity, governance, and financial issues
Request a Copy Beyond the Fads: How Leaders Drive Change With Results, Ronald N. Ashkenas, in Managing Strategic & Cultural Change in Organizations, Craig Eric Schneier, editor. The Human Resource Planning Society, 1995.
This article traces forty years of organizational fads that failed to deliver the promised results. TRW and SmithKline Beecham illustrate how leaders can drive change by starting with results instead of programs.
Request a Copy The Boundaryless Organization, The Soundview Executive Summary, 1995.
An executive summary of the book, The Boundaryless Organization.
Request a Copy Gold Collar Workers: Gold Mine or Dry Hole?, Ronald N. Ashkenas, Executive Management Forum, September 1991.
Highly paid professionals constitute over 60% of the U.S. work force. To earn the highest possible return on these people, executives
must challenge three hallowed traditions that limit productivity. This article explains how.
Request a Copy Managing Change: A Breakthrough In Billing, Gary L. Schwass (Duquesne Light Company), Grant L. Davies and Richard A. Bobbe, Financial Executive, January-February 1991.
Duquesne Light’s finance group reduced billing time from five days to one, increasing revenue by $1.7 million annually and developing internal change management capabilities.
Request a Copy Breakthrough Strategy for Performance Improvement, AIPE: Facilities Management Operations and Engineering, July-August 1987.
A commodity chemical plant saved over $14 million annually by improving management processes.
Request a Copy Professional Productivity: The TIAA-CREF Experience, R.N. Ashkenas, National Productivity Review, Summer 1986.
The TIAA-CREF case illustrates Schaffer Consulting's (then called RHS&A) approach to professional productivity.
Request a Copy Gold Collar Motivation: Appeal to Professionalism, Fritz K. Plous, World of Work Report, November 1985.
Improving the productivity of lawyers, accountants and systems professionals at TIAA-CREF.
Request a Copy Performance Improvement Program Teaches Managers How to Get Things Done, The Morgan News, May 1985.
Training managers in the Breakthrough Strategy saved Morgan Guaranty Trust millions of dollars.
Request a Copy Professional Productivity, J.B. Sellner, TIAA-CREF Topics, February 1985.
Breakthroughs described in article number B-21 are featured in the company newsletter.
Request a Copy Managing Change in Bank Operations: The Chase Experience, R.N. Ashkenas and V.G. Albanese, The World of Banking, July 1984.
Chase Manhattan’s operations managers responded to deregulation by improving results.
Request a Copy Productivity Improvement: Manage It or Buy It?, Richard A. Bobbe and Robert H. Schaffer, Growth Strategies, Business Horizons, March-April 1983.
Many companies try to meet the challenge of productivity by means of capital investment in more efficient technology, plant, and equipment. Others concentrate on training, incentives, or quality circles. These elements are all necessary. Significant improvement, however, requires management to expand its capacity to get more—both from these new investments and from the ones in place.
Request a Copy Launching a New Consulting Project, Robert H. Schaffer, AIMC Forum, Volume 1, Number 1, January 1983.
Successful consulting projects depend on early, accurate assessment of clients’ goals and motivations.
Request a Copy Managers Can Avoid Wasting Time, Ronald N. Ashkenas and Robert H. Schaffer, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1982.
The psychological traps that waste managers’ time-and how to avoid them.
Request a Copy Start With Results: A Bottom-Line Strategy for Management Development, Claude G. Guay and James A. Waters, Management Review, February 1980.
A training program helped a group of tree-harvesting foremen to improve results and sustain progress.
Request a Copy Taking Over the New Job: Breaking Through Versus Breaking In, Harvey A. Thomson and James A. Waters, Advanced Management Journal, Spring 1979.
A new position offers unique opportunities if managers get moving quickly.
Request a Copy Want Better Performance? Insist on It!,, obert H. Schaffer, Administrative Management, December 1979.
Abbreviated version of "Demand Better Results" article.
Request a Copy Management Training for Bottom-Line Results, Robert H. Schaffer and Ronald N. Ashkenas, Training & Development Journal, August 1979.
This is one of the earliest articles on results-focused management development.
Also available in Spanish.
Request a Copy Reducing the Risks of Hiring Senior Managers, Robert H. Schaffer, Management Review, December 1978.
Less discipline may be used in hiring senior managers than lower level ones. How to break this pattern.
Request a Copy Tapping Human Potential, Harvey A. Thomson and Claude G. Guay, The Canadian Personnel & Industrial Relations Journal, September 1978.
A steel mill’s personnel group helped line managers to significantly increase tonnage and quality.
Request a Copy Questionnaire: How to Demand Better Performance...and Get the Results, based on "Demand Better Results-and Get Them," Robert H. Schaffer, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1974, reprinted as a Harvard Business Review Classic March-April 1991.
Supplement to Harvard Business Review article "Demand Better Results - and Get Them".
Request a Copy Demand Better Results-and Get Them, Robert H. Schaffer, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1974, reprinted as a Harvard Business Review Classic March-April 1991, and appeared in Harvard Business Review’s 1990’s 10 Most Requested, as well as chapter 2 in Ultimate Rewards: What Really Motivates People to Achieve, Steven Kerr ed., Harvard Business School Press, 1997, p. 83-95.
For most managers, the capacity to ask for improved performance in ways that elicit results is their least developed management skill. This article explains why, and outlines a strategy for demanding more and getting it.
Request a Copy Management Development through Management Achievement, Robert H. Schaffer, Personnel, May-June 1972.
A pioneering article allocating the achievement of management development as a key element of business results.
Request a Copy The Psychological Barriers to Management Effectivenes, Robert H. Schaffer, Business Horizons, April 1971.
Managers must recognize and overcome their own behavior patterns that block performance improvement.
Request a Copy How Companies Waste Money on Management Development, Harvey A. Thomson, Canadian Business, June 1970.
Management development must take place within the context of daily responsibilities.
Request a Copy Strategy for the Corporate Planner, Robert H. Schaffer, Business Management, July 1967.
Planners can help management shape the destiny of an enterprise by expanding implementation capacity.
Request a Copy Need Better Managers? You May Have Them Already, Robert A. Neiman and Howard Newman, Hospitals, April 1965.
Roosevelt Hospital upgraded operations and management effectiveness through action projects and associated training.
Request a Copy Experiments in Positive Labor Relations, Robert A. Neiman, Personnel, September-October 1963.
Shifting adversarial management-union relationships toward cooperation and accomplishment.
Request a Copy Measuring Supervisory Performance, Robert A. Neiman, Personnel, January-February 1962.
Using appraisal systems to reinforce organizational goals.
Request a Copy New Approaches to the Principles of Management, Robert H. Schaffer, The Auxiliary Leader, August 1961.
Tapping into people’s desire for meaningful work and significant contribution.
Request a Copy When Managers Manage, Development Takes Care of Itself, Robert Zager and Robert H. Schaffer, Personnel, November-December 1960.
Integrating management development with job achievement.
Request a Copy Managing for Results: Don’t Waste Time Planning—Act, Robert H. Schaffer, The New York Times, Business Forum, Sunday, October 29, 1989.
Imaginative, long-range planning is best accomplished while focusing on immediate results, because near-term successes provide managers with the skills, confidence and information they need in the longer-term.
Request a Copy Questionnaire: The Use and Misuse of Time, based on "Managers Can Avoid Wasting Time," Ronald N. Ashkenas and Robert H. Schaffer, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1982.
Supplement to "Managers Can Avoid Wasting Time".
Request a Copy
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