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Recent Articles from Todd Ordal
CEO Coaching: Treat People Like Gold and You’ll Have More Gold
If you can create a supportive, inspiring, high-energy culture that’s challenging and rewarding and provides higher compensation, you have a real competitive advantage.
“Gentlemen, this is a football.”
If you can’t effectively respond to the question, “Where did you learn to have tough conversations?” you’re probably bad at them. If you’re a senior leader and have never had an effective 360 review process, you probably have numerous career-stalling weaknesses. Do something about it!
These are the critical skills every CEO should have
After years of mentoring successful CEOs, a coach shares which important leadership skills are needed to achieve success. You must be good at leading others, so getting people aligned with your goals will help make your company successful.
CEO leadership skills: you’ve gotta work at it
Luck plays a role in success. But leaders who have successful careers (measured by their ability to get others’ help with creating lasting value — monetary and otherwise) work hard at the business of their company and at developing themselves.
CEO Coaching: On Stability and Change
The skills, processes and behaviors required to build stability are different from those necessary to drive change. That’s why CEOs must have both management expertise (taming complexity and building stability) as well as leadership skills (looking at the future and driving change). Sometimes it’s more about leadership, and sometimes it’s more about management.
Hurricane Andrew
Stand up for capitalism and well-run business! Support those voices that encourage business as well as environmental and social reform. How a routine business call helped this CEO Coach.
CEO Coaching: Family business or monkey business?
With the right structure, the correct governance policies and good operating practices, you can have a successful multigenerational family business.
How to break the cycle of luddites in management
If you put someone in a leadership role who doesn’t have management experience, it's your responsibility to help them! People who want to improve and ask for help are usually the stars of tomorrow.
CEO Challenges: I’m on my heels and winter is coming! Now what?
Take a day out of the office and away from Zoom and ponder these. Perhaps do it with your senior team. You’ll be a better leader as a result and a bit less anxious.
This Dog Don’t Hunt!
In business, like in Afghanistan or Vietnam, it’s not rational thought that keeps the fight going beyond reasonable investments — it’s emotion. Whether it’s a product line, a geographic region or your business model, when do you reasonably say, “This isn’t going to work”?
Co-CEOs? A look at the argument for two leaders
A recent piece in Harvard Business Review asks, “Is CEO a Two-Person Job?” Once in a great while, the soulmate, mind-meld situation might exist in nature and perhaps a company will be better off for a short time if there are two leaders. With some good thought, the job of CEO can be structured like Goldilocks’ porridge; not too little, not too much.
CEO Coaching: A shocking look at strategy
Significant changes to company strategy (e.g., “Where do we play, and how do we win?”) are frequent in startups but less so in established companies. Why would you radically change a working formula? You shouldn’t! CEO Coach Todd Ordal is always looking out for good examples of what a significant change in strategy looks like.
