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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 9 – An Interview with Steve Kerr, author of Reward Systems

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag posts on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 9 – An Interview with Steve Kerr, author of Reward Systems examines how properly conceived and implemented reward systems create organizational alignment and increase execution efficiency and effectiveness. During our discussion, Steve Kerr, author of Reward Systems: Does Yours Measure Up? and Senior Advisor at Goldman Sachs, shares with us his insights regarding:

  • components of an effective reward system and how they help create organizational alignment
  • a three phase process for creating a reward system aligned with an organization’s strategic goals
  • how to introduce employees to a new or changing reward system
  • balancing performance, tenure, and attendance during reward determination
  • warning signs that an organization’s reward system is less than effective

Additional Information

Steve’s book, Reward Systems, can be purchased by clicking here.

About the Author

Steve Kerr, author of Reward Systems, is Senior Advisor at Goldman Sachs, where as Chief Learning Officer he created Pine Street, the firm’s distinctive leadership development organization. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Steve was the Chief Learning Officer at General Electric, where he led and expanded that organization’s world renowned Crotonville learning center. He has also served on the business school faculties at Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Southern California. To read Steve’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:32 — 44.7MB)

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 8 – An Interview with Steve Steinhilber, author of Strategic Alliances

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 8 – An Interview with Steve Steinhilber, author of Strategic Alliances examines how businesses effectively establish and maintain profitable strategic alliance relationships. During our discussion, Steve Steinhilber, author of Strategic Alliances: Three Ways to Make Them Work and Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Cisco, shares with us his insights regarding:

  • what strategic alliances are and the steps taken to form them
  • business drivers and key characteristics of successful alliances
  • unique traits strategic alliance relationship managers should possess
  • the composition and structure of a strategic alliance organization

Additional Information

Complimenting the tremendous insights Steve shares in Strategic Alliances and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from the Cisco website including:

Steve’s book, Strategic Alliances, can be purchased by clicking here.

Special Note…

Please remember that profits from the sale of Strategic Alliances go to the Cisco Foundation; providing those less fortunate with improved access to basic human needs, education, and economic opportunities. To learn more about the Cisco Foundation, click here.

About the Author

Steve Steinhilber, author of Strategic Alliances: Three Ways to Make Them Work, is Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Cisco, where he is responsible for developing new and managing ongoing strategic alliances with top global companies including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, and Nokia; a portfolio valued at more than $4.5 billion in annual revenue for Cisco alone. He is recognized by both business and academia for excellence in alliance leadership.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:19 — 47.2MB)

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Leadership Inspirations – Listening

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“Think of all the times in your life when you learned something, when you discovered something new. When this happened, were you speaking or listening?”

Lucas Ives
Consultant
Verizon Wireless

When speaking, you are providing information and when listening, you are receiving information. It may be nothing new, but then again, it may be new, important or even life changing. Take the time to listen and maybe, the next time you really do need to speak, the information you provide will be new to the listener. It may actually be important to them, or even life changing.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 5 – An Interview with Michael Gurian, author of Leadership and the Sexes

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag posts on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 5 – An Interview with Michael Gurian, author of Leadership and the Sexes examines the equal but different intelligence of men and women. During our discussion, Michael Gurian, author of Leadership and the Sexes and co-founder of the Gurian Institute, shares with us his insights regarding:

  • the intellectual differences between men and women and the impact these differences have on how each gender leads
  • the quantifiable impact of an organization’s gender intelligence on the bottom line
  • how executives and managers can assess the gender intelligence of their organizations

Additional Information

Complimenting the tremendous insights Michael shares in Leadership and the Sexes and this special edition podcast, are the additional gender intelligence materials and resources found on his website, Gurian Institute (www.GurianInstitute.com). Michael’s book, Leadership and the Sexes, can be purchased by clicking here.

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Michael GurianMichael Gurian, New York Times best selling author of Leadership and the Sexes, is co-founder of the Gurian Institute, a training organization focused on helping corporations, educators, parents, and communities understand of how the male and female brain operate differently. He has spearheaded a national effort to provide communities and corporations with training in brain based gender issues. Michael’s pioneering theory has been featured in leading national media including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Time, and Newsweek. To read Michael’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:52 — 47.9MB)

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Leadership Inspirations – Incompetence Begets Incompetence

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“Incompetency begets incompetency. The last thing a guy who isn’t sure of himself wants is a guy backing him up who is sure of himself.”

Lee Iacocca
former President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board, Chrysler Corporation

The sad fact is that this situation occurs all too often. Instead of nurturing their rising stars, insecure executives and managers feel their positions and reputations are threatened by these top performers and act to:

  • take personal credit for the rising star’s performance output and results
  • hide the star performer from the view of other executives and managers by preventing their participation in cross disciplinary initiatives, public presentations, and interaction with other executives and managers
  • diminish the star’s performance evaluation ratings with claims that the star intimidates seniors and/or is too aggressive

These behaviors disenfranchise star performers; resulting in reduced output and elevated attrition. The net result, of course, is diminished organizational performance and value creation, the exact opposite of what the executive or manager is charged to achieve.

Insecure executives and managers fail to recognize that they are not competing with their subordinates. Executives and managers are evaluated on their ability to lead others to the achievement of superior results, their subordinates on their ability to perform the tasks from which those results are derived. Therefore, subordinates’ superior performance does not place executives and managers at risk. To the contrary, a subordinate’s superior performance is often attributed to the capable leadership of the individual’s manager. Competent executives and managers understand this concept and surround themselves with superstar performers. Incompetent and insecure executives and managers do not recognize this fact and subsequently surround themselves with even less competent subordinates; condemning themselves and their organizations to inferior performance.