I have been working with a few executives who are faced with leading very challenging, and in one case, very dysfunctional teams. It is obviously hard on the executives who are driving toward execution and results. Teams are critical to success – regardless of what we are trying to accomplish: school reformation,  30% year over year…

Many of my clients have heard me refer to an all time favorite movie clip from the movie Jerry McGuire starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGt5f70K02Q This is the scene in the locker room where Jerry is simply at his wits end trying to support his client! He is pleading with him to “help…

Recently I was reading a fabulous book, The Extraordinary Coach by John Zenger, which had a great analogy relative to giving feedback to employees. As you all  know, I am a big believer in giving and getting feedback on a regular basis. Feedback is a gift – as cliched as this may sound. In his…

Recently I had the distinct pleasure of working with the The Center for Educational Innovation – Public Education Association (CEI-PEA), which is a New York City-based nonprofit organization that creates successful public schools and educational programs. These individuals are doing tremendous things to improve the quality of education for the 1.6 million children in the New…

Many of my clients are ending their third quarter and embarking on Q4 or, at a minimum, coming into the second half of their fiscal year. Many are struggling to make their sales quota numbers, shore up their teams, secure the funding and resources needed, or simply unify their organizations to work more collaboratively together. They have…

Recently I have been asked to lead several board and executive retreats through their annual strategic planning process. The similarities of their challenges are startling similar – regardless of industry, non-profit or for-profit organizations. The days of plentiful donations for non-profits are gone. Double digit growth, for most companies, is a friend of distant past.…

As we go through life, I have come to believe we need to do exactly what our ‘yeah, but’ voice says we should not! We need to embrace our opportunities and go for them! Take the plunge. Write the book. Call the new friend we just met. Bid the job which will be a stretch.…

In a February 2009 Fortune magazine article, Jim Collins, said: “In times of great duress, tumult, and uncertainty, you have to have moorings. Companies like P&G, GE, J&J, and IBM have an incredible fabric of values, of underlying ideals or principles that explained why is was important that they existed. The more challenged you are,…

Recently I had the fabulous opportunity to build a workshop with a colleague around the topic of Resiliency. It was a topic in which I have personally grown very familiar over the past several years. Yet, frankly, I had not directly translated my personal experiences of ‘bouncing back’ to the criticality of this same capability…

The second of three podcasts that outlines Kristin’s philosophy on the three pillars of Alignment. This podcast addresses the power of alignment among and between a collection of individuals.