The Dark Side

The dark side of communication coaching for senior executives. And for the record, the link does not necessarily represent the views of myself, Kate, or the elves who run the back office at Seat 1A. It is simply a warning: Harlan McCraney is out there, somewhere, lurking ...

(And no, it's not fair. But it is funny. And in the interest of fairness, go read and listen to what history will record as one of the strongest speeches ever given before assembled congress. I say this as a rhetorician, not as a partisan.)

The Hewitt List

Hewitt has released the results of their annual U.S. Top Companies For Leaders study. Details: Sample of HR execs. from 373 companies; median revenue of $2 bil.; median employee size of 7,300. If you're not into downloading the PDF of the results, FC Now has them here.

Frankly, and as a partner in a consulting firm, I always cringe when I see consulting firms conducting these types of studies and releasing their resulting lists. At the firm we've been exposed to their inner workings and methodologies on several occasions (although not this particular Hewitt study), and with a research practice of our own in-house, we've frankly never been very impressed with the rigor of the processes involved.

So, in general, like the Oscars, we say take them with a grain of salt. In this instance the methodology seems a bit more robust, with multiple steps for screening the "best" leadership companies, including comparisons of financial performance, with the final call coming down to a panel of judges (from the study booklet):

• John Byrne is the Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company magazine and the author of eight books on business, leadership, and management. He was previously a senior writer at BusinessWeek and the author of 57 cover stories at the magazine. He is a frequent commentator and public speaker on topics ranging from creativity and innovation to leadership and corporate governance.
• Price M. Cobbs is an internationally recognized psychiatrist and management consultant. Pacific Management Systems, the company he founded, consults with organizations on leadership, executive development, and diversity strategies. He is the author of several books, including Cracking the Corporate Code: From Survival to Mastery.
• Marshall Goldsmith is a leading executive coach, prominent speaker, and author of many books and articles on leadership. He is an authority on how to help leaders achieve positive, measurable changes in their own behavior and that of their people and teams. The author of 18 books, he has been named one of the five most respected executive coaches by BusinessWeek, and one of the 50 greatest thinkers in the field of management by American Management Association.
• Jay Jamrog is the Executive Director of the Human Resource Institute and identifies and analyzes the major issues and trends affecting the management of people in organizations. He is an associate editor of Human Resource Planning, and is frequently quoted in business publications on topics relating to the future of people management.
• Joseph McCann is Dean of the John H. Sykes College of Business, Dean of Graduate Studies, and Co-Chief Academic Officer at the University of Tampa. He is a consultant, researcher, and author on organizational design and strategic change, mergers and acquisitions, rapidly growing technology companies, and new business venturing. He is an associate editor of Human Resource Planning.

So take it for what it's worth. I must say that if the staff at CRA were to sit around a table and call out names of companies we think have great leadership development programs, many of Hewitt's top 20 would be in our top 20 (due to personal exposure, reputation, or both). But I also know there are lots of smaller firms, and many, many privately-held firms, that due to lack of exposure (or a preference for privacy) simply wouldn't be in the mix.