Executive Leadership Group, Inc.

White Papers & Point Papers

• What would senior leaders advise you about how to brief senior leaders?
  Well, we have compiled that advice from senior military leaders and it is excellent. See Verbatim: Senior Leaders Tell How to Brief Senior Leaders. (May 2009) Total reading time 9 minutes.

• Are "Strategic Assumptions" actually useful in a Strategic Plan?
  They are if you follow these quick pointers: Strategic Assumptions: Nine Keys to Success. (December 2008) Total reading time 6 minutes.

• How do you maintain the expertise of experts WHILE they serve under and with people who know beans about that expertise?
  Our white paper, Multiplying the Power of Experts: A Systemic Approach (August 2008), tells you how. $249.00
  

• Does the military's current attraction to "enterprise thinking" turn its back on military tradition--or embrace it?
  That's the question addressed by the attached 2-page point paper, Enterprise Thinking: Lessons From the Tooth to the Tail. (April 2008) Total reading time 3 minutes.

• When metrics drive strategy instead of strategy driving metrics, then your organization has the disease called metric mania.
  Although US Navy examples are cited, Are We Driving Strategic Results, or Metric Mania will have relevance to any organization afflicted by metrics. (December 2006) Total reading time 12 minutes.

• The current act for which you cannot be fired, no matter what your results, is installing "balanced scorecard."
  Our white paper, A Balanced View of Balanced Scorecard offers less than the usual wide-eyed enthusiasm for this current rage. (October 2004) Total reading time 7 minutes.

Video

• The US Coast Guard asked Dr. Bill Casey to address a gathering of its metric gurus. Topic: The role of clear goals in organizational transformation. The introduction is by CDR John Harding. Watch video

Articles

• Choosing the Right PMO Setup offers a fresh perspective on the topic of PMOs. The article appeared in the February 2001 issue of PM Network magazine.

• Working across boundaries in large, siloed organizations can be a challenge. Here's how one small but wiry DoD organization is doing it with flare! This appeared in the April 2007 issue of Government Executive magazine.

Business Journal Column: Managing for Results

• Why accountability still counts in corporate America
  "We're all accountable," often means that no one is. Single point accountability is the antidote.

• 'Resource sharing' approach could result in chaos
  Sometimes employees must be shared by two or more managers. This "resource sharing" is tricky, but there are some ways to make it work.

• Responsibility + No Authority = Manager Burnout
  Leadership and communication skills are important, but they're no replacement for management authority. The absence of managerial authority creates a predictable set of symptoms we call the NAG syndrome.

• Some tips for managing projects more effectively
  Many managers don't know when or how to use the skill set called "project management."

• Empathic attitude can score points with customers
  Handling angry customers, whether they are external customers or internal ones, can be exhausting. This column spells out a reasonably bullet-proof way to do it.

• Don't have a system meltdown like Hershey once did
  Big, Hairy Systems Projects, such as SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft and the like can dramatically improve a company's performance. Or, they can bring a company to its knees.

• Convincing employees to embrace change is no easy feat
  Everybody wants things to be better, but nobody wants them to be different. That's the problem executives face when they attempt any major improvement: getting people to want to do things differently.

• First impressions are everything for new executives
  It's tough being the new kid on the block. It's even tougher being the new kid in charge. So in our most recent Business Journal column, we offer tips on how executives can succeed in the precarious business taking charge.

• Successful business leaders share words of wisdom
  The best consultant you could ever hire would be yourself - 10 or 20 years from now. But since that's impossible, the next best thing might be to ask successful leaders what they know now that they wish they had known sooner. And that's exactly what we did.

• On Head Chopping
  For years now we've preached the need to look deeper than simple headcount reduction when cutting costs. In this Business Journal column, we explain the appeal - and some alternatives - to simple-minded head chopping.

• Resist efforts to run business like the government
  Bureaucracy -- what it is and what to do about it.

• Some simple rules for communicating with executives
  If you are an executive, then you probably need to coach your employees on how to communicate with you. If you are a middle manager, then you probably need to figure out how best to communicate with executives.

• How to manage a remote team
  Managing a remote team can feel like pushing a turtle with three soda straws taped together.

• Strategic project control starts with asking right questions
  Getting a handle on big projects is tough if you're the executive in charge. You don't want to get too far into the details; that's the project manager's job, not yours.

• Bad news rising
  As both the Columbia and Challenger disasters taught us, cultures of denial do not work. Bad news MUST make its way to the top. But that's not always easy to achieve.

• Are Goals Stupid? Is your company's annual goal-setting a stupid, check-box-exercise, or a powerful way to implement strategy?

• Corporate restructuring continues, even as the economy improves
  The strategy that leaders pick - out-sourcing, decentralization, whatever - won't matter if the tactics aren't right.

• There are 2 kinds of people; one can ruin your company
  It's not hard to imagine that ILOCers fare better than ELOCers, as hundreds of studies have shown.

• Lessons learned, if shared, will help strengthen the business
  Even good companies can seem incredibly dumb, especially when they make the same mistakes again and again, or don't exploit what they know. As with people though, dumb isn't always dumb; sometimes it's a learning disability.

• How not to derail your climb up the corporation's ladder
  There are a lot of ways to derail a promising executive career.

• Detractors can't diminish worth of Skinner's, Taylor's innovations
  In our final column we defend the reputations of a dead scientist and a dead engineer.

Mini-Chapters for the book titled:

Business Driven Information Technology: Answers to 100 Critical Questions for Every Manager by David Laube (ed.) and Ray Zammuto (ed.). It was sponsored by The College of Business at the University of Colorado, Denver. Published September 2003 by Stanford Press. It comprises the work of 60 authors. ELG provided these seven of the 100 mini-chapters:

Interview

• In this interview printed in PM Network (January, 1998), our president, Bill Casey, takes a different view on organizational hierarchy.