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StrategyDriven Podcast Host Featured on Robert Thompson’s Thought Grenades

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Organizational Alignment, its benefits and how to get it took center stage when StrategyDriven Podcast Host, Nathan Ives, was featured on a recent episode of Robert Thompson’s Thought Grenades. During their discussion, Nathan, Robert, and Mike talked about the key principles and benefits of an aligned organization and the actions leaders need to take to establish and maintain such alignment. The dialog was rich in content and steeped with examples, including:

  • What is organizational alignment?
  • What are the benefits and bottom line value of having a well aligned organization?
  • If one visited a well aligned organization, what observable organizational and behavioral characteristics would readily observable and why are these important?
  • What programs and processes must an organization have in place and running well if it is to be aligned?
  • What actions to the leaders need to take in order to establish and maintain the workforce’s focus on achievement of the organization’s goals?
  • What is organizational accountability and what is its role in achieving organizational alignment?
  • What in your experience is one programmatic and one behavioral challenge that keeps organizations from achieving true alignment?

Each Monday at 1 pm Eastern / 10 am Pacific, Robert Thompson’s Thought Grenades provides rants and raves about current leadership issues and practical ideas to unleash the leader within. Click here to listen and learn about organizational alignment from three of today’s foremost leadership and management experts.

Want Nathan’s show note? Click here to download an outline of Nathan’s key points and thoughts on organizational alignment.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 22 – An Interview with Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management

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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 22 – An Interview with Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management explores how executives should approach project management in order to enhance alignment and accountability to their organization’s vision, mission, goals, and values. During our discussion, Michael Bender, Founder and CEO of Ally Business Developers and author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management: Learn How to Apply Best Practices shares his insights regarding:

  • a process for aligning projects with the organization’s vission, mission, goals, and values
  • frequency for rebalancing the corporate project portfolio
  • criteria and method for evaluating whether or not to discontinue a project
  • importance of accounting for unbudgeted activities when evaulating a project’s cost

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Mike shares in A Manager’s Guide to Project Management and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his Ally Business Developers website (www.AllyBusiness.com). Mike’s book, A Manager’s Guide to Project Management, published by FT Press can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management, is Founder and CEO of Ally Business Developers, a consortium of world-class business, organizational, and professional development experts. Michael’s leadership and project and program management experience contributed to projects including the Hubble Space Telescope, NEXRAD – the Next Generation Weather Radar, and air traffic control systems for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan. He is an American Management Association speaker and guest speaker at DePaul University and the Project Management Institute. To read Mike’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:04 — 55.1MB)

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 20b – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 2 of 2

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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 20b – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 2 of 2 explores how leaders can enhance their organization’s alignment and accountability through question-based leadership. During our discussion, Gary Cohen, Partner and co-Founder of CO2 Partners and author of Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions shares his insights regarding:

  • a process for determining what questions to ask for a given situation
  • attributes of good questions
  • impacts of asking too many or too few questions and how to identify when that point is reached
  • how to incorporate questions into one’s leadership style

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Gary shares in Just Ask Leadership and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his Just Ask Leadership website (www.JustAskLeadership.com) and the CO2 Partners website (www.CO2Partners.com). The values assessment discussed during the podcast can be accessed at www.CEOTest.com. Gary’s book, Just Ask Leadership, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, is Partner and co-Founder of CO2 Partners, a Minneapolis based executive coaching and consulting firm. Gary is renowned for his work as the President and co-Founder of ACI Telecentrics, a company he took from 2 to 2,200 employees and a peak of $32 million in annual revenues. Under his leadership, ACI grew at an average compounded rate of over 50 percent for almost 13 years and was recognized as one of Venture Magazine’s Top 10 Best Performance Businesses and Business Journal’s 25 Fastest Growth Small Public Companies. Gary is frequently interviewed on leadership issues by many of today’s leading publications including USA Today, the Washington Post, and Business Week. To read Gary’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:37 — 42.1MB)

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Celebrating Our Second Year… Continuing a Trend of Innovation

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July 1, 2009 marked the second anniversary of the StrategyDriven website and we have experienced considerable growth and innovation! Since July 1, 2008, we have tripled our number of registered members and have grown to a peak of:

  • 1,035 registered members
  • 9,107 unique monthly visitors
  • 22,090 monthly site visits
  • 69,519 monthly page views

Our website has also grown, now offering insights on strategic business planning and tactical execution through:

  • 229 principle, best practice, and warning flag postings – covering 24 management and leadership categories
  • 27 episodes of the StrategyDriven Podcast – ranked in the top three of all business podcasts during the last 12 months and twice voted as the number one business podcast!
  • 20 Interviews
  • 5 whitepapers
  • 8 models and
  • the monthly edition of the StrategyDriven Newsletter – click here to sign up

As a community, we are fortunate to have had several of our members share their insights with us through posted comments including:

  • Mark Horstman, Manager Tools (www.Manager-Tools.com)
  • Todd Watkins, The Immigration Truth (www.TheImmigrationTruth.com)
  • John Bogard, Fountainhead (www.Fountainhead.org)
  • Kenneth Sawka, Outward Insights (www.OutwardInsights.com)
  • John Ringland, New Civilization Network (www.NewCiv.org)

Finally, we have been complimented by many reviewers and websites linking to us including:

Thank You!

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank you, our readers and listeners, for helping to make our second year even more successful than the first! We truly appreciate your time and your insights and we look forward to an exciting year to come.

All the Best,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief and
Director, Communications and Marketing
StrategyDriven

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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