Dave Cooke

Nothing frustrates me more that leaders who have this unique ability to establish two sets of rules, behaviors, and values in an organization.  The leaders I most respect are those who have demonstrated the capability to “walk the talk” and clearly live in concert with the values they encourage their team and their organization to adopt.  

I witness a great deal of behavioral disconnects in senior level management to the cores values or policies.  Whether these leaders know or care about the impact these behaviors have on their leadership abilities, I cannot say. What I can state with great conviction is that nothing destroys the credibility of a leader than incongruent behaviors.  Either we are in this...

I enjoyed a great interactive conversation with an old client who is in the process of managing his first team.  His biggest concerns were how he can make a difference in an expedient manner.  The nature of his questions were based on the objective of accelerating his career.  I politely and directly informed him that the key to his success has nothing to do with his personal professional objectives.  His ability to make a difference in this organization was based on his skills in developing, inspiring, and guiding his new team.  Were he to go in with an objective focused on his wants, objectives and drivers as it relates to his personal goals, chances are his learning curve and his success curve are going to experience some challenges.

When a new leader comes into an organization the best thing they can do is learn.  Many leaders come into a new environment with the idea that everything they have experienced, deployed and utilized in the past will work in their new...

When dealing with an irate customer, how does your team manage the resolution process?  Customer frustration and dissatisfaction is often manifested through emotional channels–anger, rage, raised voices, nasty words.  While the real issue may not be as emotionally charged, it usually is displayed this way because too many businesses have conditioned their customers to openly display their unhappiness to be heard, seen or noticed. 

Avoiding the public display of disatisfaction by your customers involves educating your team to recognize the non-verbal behaviors that reflect something less than delight.  Many organizations delight themselves in their ability to difuse testy situations before they get out of hand.  This is a valuable component for any business committed to improving customer experience.  Imagine the power of the experience for the customer if your team had the skills...

Introducing a strategy to your team is tricky, especially if the language you are speaking doesn’t resonate with them.  Many leaders and managers excitedly declare a new company strategy or a new company plan with the expectations that the team will embrace, engage and celebrate.  Then, those same leaders find themselves frustrated with the response and performance of the team to this new initiative as it slowly becomes another failed plan. 

What causes this strategic failure? What can the business owner or executive do to fire up the team and get them engaged for the duration of the initiative?  Why are these strategies met with such apathy?  The answer is simple: it’s the language.

Business strategies are often introduced in the way the Ten Commandments were introduced to the Israelites — from on high.  When receiving guidance from a higher authority, God...