Categories
Change and Transformation
“The Beacon Group’s program proved to be a transformational experience for our staff, and has created a new, more open culture of creativity and collaboration that has given The Globe and Mail a marked and measurable competitive advantage.” — Phillip Crawley
“The Beacon Group’s thought provoking curriculum utilizes best practice tools and interactive media for evaluation, assessment and overall learning. It has helped us raise the bar on our calibre of talent.” — Ernst Lieb
“The Beacon Group was able to handle our 360 reviews across 9 offices in a manner that brought significant value to our partners, the firm and ultimately our clients.” — Judson Whiteside
“The human capital programs provided by The Beacon Group are best in class.” — Tye Burt
“The Beacon Group acted as a strategic partner and was instrumental in helping us raise the bar on candid dialogue and team performance.” — Robert Courteau
“The Beacon Group approaches very serious and difficult topics in an accessible and insightful way.” — Eric Siegel
“We engaged The Beacon Group when we needed to bring two cultures together after our first major international acquisition: the evidence of their success lies in both the subsequent growth in our business and our presence in more than twelve countries on five continents.” — Rupert Duchesne
“The Beacon Group excels in facilitating open & candid dialogue that has fostered superior team performance.” — Mary Ellen Carlyle
“Top-level thought leadership, combined with practical, cost-effective solutions—that’s the real value the Beacon Group team brings to bear on Foresters talent challenges.” — Suanne Nielsen
“The Beacon Group delivered cutting edge perspectives on many human capital topics that were tailored and customized to our company in a way that we could not have obtained at more generic, cookie-cutter advising shops.” — Doug Lord
“Doug Williamson and his team were of invaluable assistance in helping our organization navigate through a completely new strategic planning process and emerge with a three year plan resoundingly endorsed by our Board. Doug’s global perspectives and ability to drive consensus was an integral part of our success.” — Don Forgeron
“The Global HR & Communications senior team engaged the Beacon Group in shepherding us through a unique strategic planning process that involved an outside-in view of our current and future workforce and how this aligns to our business strategy. Thanks to Doug and his team it was a thought provoking process that sharpened our strategic thinking and, in the end, made our strategy stronger.” — Sylvia Chrominska
“The Beacon Group’s customized and personalized approach fit our needs perfectly. From the initial self-discovery phase all the way to recommending solutions, the work they have done has been consistently world-class. They combine strong analytics with a wealth of real world experience. They are focused, targeted and are experts at taking theoretic concepts and making them real. We look forward to working with Doug and his team as we continue to elevate our business and improve our internal performance.” — Don Romano
“I have had the pleasure of working with The Beacon Group and Doug Williamson for several years across several organizations and have always been impressed with their professionalism, work ethic and customer orientation. Doug's own highly energetic and highly customized approach to the specific needs of our business and our leadership team sets him apart from other strategic facilitators and objective "thought provokers" I have experienced. I am always grateful and impressed by the tangible results his interventions tend to produce.” — Lloyd A. Perlmutter
“The big contribution was The Beacon Group challenged our culture and our comfort level. We then arrived at a clear plan of concise deliverables that we needed to execute to move forward on our vision.” — Tony Ambler
“SKF approached The Beacon Group to develop our Talent Management program. The process implemented by Doug Williamson and his team was extremely important for us in determining how to execute the program on a clear, organized and systematic way. This was one of our most important projects that will enable us to ensure our sustainable growth.” — João Ricciarelli
“Through its sound and strategically practical business knowledge and experience The Beacon Group has and continues to assist SCI in better understanding and enabling our organization to build engaged teams and leadership capability to help make our supply chain clients more competitive.” —John Ferguson |
Provocative PropositionsIn the hyperactive and challenging world in which we all live, it is becoming harder and harder for business leaders to find time to read, reflect and gain insight from the many valuable sources at our disposal. In "Provocative Propositions", The Beacon Group attempts to fill that void by offering our opinion, often rather pointed, on a wide array of issues we believe are relevant to leading a modern organization. The articles are catalogued into 12 categories so you can quickly and easily find a topic of particular interest. We then offer three easy steps under the heading "In Our Opinion" to help business leaders take action on the key themes. Simply click on the category and read away. Become an Influencer
You’ve spent your entire career climbing.
From MBA student, to manager, to Vice-President. Now you’ve reached your goal, the C-suite. Your company’s employee turnover is 20% - industry average. Customer service is passable – industry average. You call your first meeting, deliver your "call to action" speech. You wait... nothing happens. Perhaps it’s too soon. Perhaps, they didn’t understand. Then it hits you. You realize at that moment that while you’ve been climbing the corporate ladder you have failed to notice that the rungs are meaningless, you’ve failed to develop some key relationships. You know the business inside and out, but you don’t know a thing about its people. You are not an influencer. How are you going to get these problems fixed? The fact is modern businesses are constantly burdened by long-term problems. These problems don’t go away. They don’t change. They’re not getting any better. The problem is not that we do not lack the courage to confront these problems – we lack the skill. People tend to act like "copers" rather than influencers. The outcome is we develop complex coping mechanisms and justifications to deal with these problems without creating lasting change. Our business plans do not execute as expected and we have trouble motivating individuals to follow through with goals. The solution is to recognize our ability to influence problems. Focus on a small number of "high leverage" behaviours or vital behaviours and apply these to your interactions to develop superior performance. The question here is influence. Why do some organizations seem to resolve their issues while others remain stagnant? What does it take to influence employees in order to get a solution implemented? Becoming an Influencer Kerry Patterson in his book "Influencer: The Power to Change Anything" argues the key is to understand that you, as a leader, have the responsibility to find out what motivates your co-workers and apply that knowledge to get results from them. There are two kinds of companies in the business world. One kind of company has leaders who are continually meeting new challenges. Other companies have leaders who resign to dealing with an ever-shrinking list of challenges "within their control". One set of companies is innovating and seeking to deal with its problems. The other is setting barriers for its accomplishments. One organization has influencers, the other has leaders who develop coping mechanisms. It’s so easy to be the second type of company. That’s the company that labels its challenges as "out of its control" or "impossible to resolve". It is a company that accepts the status quo. It is a company with a group of leaders who don’t understand influence and haven't taken the time to see how they can motivate others for performance. Being an influencer involves two things. In the first place, it involves identifying the needs of your co-workers. Secondly, it involves identifying pressure points that will allow you to influence them. It’s a practice in organizational goal-setting and motivation. Vital Behaviours The most successful companies out there know what they want to change. Jack Welch wanted to create a culture of open expression and continuous improvement at GE. Steve Jobs' Apple is focused on constant creativity. These companies have identified vital behaviours they wish to replicate in the workplace. Think about vital behaviours as actions to be achieved. This is what you want your co-workers to do to resolve a problem. There's no cookie-cutter list here. Vital behaviours are different from company to company. Sources of Influence How do you become an organization that influences employees to succeed? We're not talking about persuasion here. It’s definitely not about lecturing your employees to follow strict procedures. Many companies try this approach. Most of the time they get spotty results. Some employees are attentive, most aren’t. It’s quite simple. We're talking about personal needs and pressure points that encourage performance from employees. Why should an employee care? What's in it for them? Top Performers The most influential leaders have identified these sources and are using them to overcome their challenges. These top performers behave in two different ways that separate them from the rest: 1) They reward positive performance more often than their peers. 2) They rapidly alternate between teaching and questioning. Who does these things in your organization? Who does them more often? The real question is which organizations have more people doing these things more often? In Our Opinion The Beacon Group’s Keys to developing your organization's influencers Three key points to starting the influence process in your workplace: Be on the lookout for serenity - Serenity is another way of describing a stagnant attitude. People naturally seek serenity. Watch for anyone in the workplace identifying items "within our control" and those "out of our control". Be different from the norm and target the items that everyone believes are "out of our control". Start small - Start by using one influencing behaviour and watch how it impacts other behaviours. It may be difficult to use several sources of influence at the beginning. Just one will make a big difference. Focus on behaviours - Find what you want to change and focus on those aspects. Refrain from drawing out vague strategies or desired outcomes. Focus on actions and align your processes to motivate individuals. |
|
About Us | Services | Press Room | Resources | Subscribe Home | Blog | Contact Us | Site Map |
|
