409 Posts Found

If you answer no to any of the following questions, your company’s incentive plan may be in need of a tuneup or a complete overhaul.

• Do line managers support the plan and use it to manage and guide employees?
• Does everyone on the executive team understand and agree on what the plan is designed to accomplish?
• Is the plan rewarding the right behaviors?
• Do employees understand what the

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Author: Joanne Sammer | Source: The Incentive Comp Quandary | Subject: Human Resources Questions

Which activity-based costing/management (ABC/M) software you choose depends on characteristics of your business; one solution isn’t right for every organization. Use the following questions to find the product that will work best for your company.

1. Does the software offer multi-dimensional analysis — in other words, can it separate out costs by customer, product, geographical region and business channel?
2. Can you use it to extract information

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Author: Tad Leahy | Source: Comparison Shopping for ABC/M Software | Subject: Finance Questions

Here’s a simple diagnostic tool that can be used to facilitate your firm’s discussions of the characteristics it seeks in a leader.

The questions that follow include a series of “paired” qualities that a good leader might possess. In each pair, either quality may be desirable. However, the point of pairing these qualities is to ask, “if there had to be a choice between the two … [ Read more ]

Author: David Maister | Source: Selecting a CFO: Do We Know What We Want? | Subject: CEO / Executive Questions

• What is the mission of the organization? The response should be why it does what it does, the organization’s reason for being. If there is no mission statement, or the response focuses on the what and not on the why it does what it does, say good-bye.
• What is the board’s vision of the future? This question should bring an illuminating response. No vision, no

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Author: Frances Hesselbein | Source: Thought Leaders Forum: Frances Hesselbein on The Indispensable Partnership | Subject: Corporate Governance Questions

Here are seven key questions that people who are considering joining a board should ask their attorneys. Sitting directors can use the questions as a checklist to gauge what to demand from a company to stay on its board.

1. Are my assets covered? No question is likely to be more important than this one, regardless of how diligent and honorable a director, other board

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Author: Randy Myers | Source: Seven Questions to Ask Your Own Attorney Now | Subject: Corporate Governance Questions

There’s a lot of talk these days about the lack of independent directors on corporate boards. But it’s not just a big-company issue. There should be at least one outsider on your board, too. Here’s what to ask to get the right person in the chair.

1. What will it take for my company to grow from $10 million to $100 million? Insert your own

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Author: Jennifer Gill | Source: Smart Questions: How to Vet a Board Member | Subject: Corporate Governance Questions

These are the questions that every director should be able to answer—with a “yes,” in the case of the first nine, and with a reasonably comprehensive explanation in the case of the latter three.

1. Strategic Direction: Does management have a comprehensive strategy and operating plan for the company to realize its performance potential?
2. Resource Allocation: Are the necessary human, financial, physical, and other supporting resources

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Authors: Bill Birchard, Christian Burger, Paul F. Kocourek | Source: Corporate Governance: Hard Facts about Soft Behaviors | Subject: Corporate Governance Questions

Have you:

• Planned for the management of transition as you would for any critical business initiative by allocating the necessary leadership, resources, time, and executive-level attention?
• Considered how much change the organization can absorb over what period of time, and planned accordingly?
• Designed a process for creating an integrated change agenda that incorporates input from relevant constituencies and allows the CEO and executive team to shape and

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Source: Transition Leadership: A Guide to Leading Change Initiatives | Subject: Change Management Questions

1. How does this person compare to the best you’ve ever seen in the role?
2. On a scale of 1 – 100, how would you rank this person?
3. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest), how do you rate XYZ on [specific trait or ability]?
4. Can you tell me about a project that would have failed without [candidate]?
5. What haven’t I asked that, if you were

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Source: Add More Rigor to Your Reference Calls With These 25 Questions | Subject: Human Resources Questions

Ask yourself these nine questions before you lend your company’s voice to an issue. If you answer no to any of them, it’s unwise to proceed.

1. Is the issue central to your business’s values, code of conduct, or other existing public commitments?
2. Is the issue an environmental or social priority, according to a rigorous materiality assessment?
3. Does the issue pertain to commitments you have made to

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Author: Alison Taylor | Source: Author Talks: The business of ethics for leaders | Subjects: Communications Questions, Social Responsibility Questions

The ACE approach is helpful for considering the caliber of a memo when launching a change implementation plan:

1. Actionable: Does the message set reasonable expectations and describe the path forward in now, next, and then terms?
2. Credible: Does the message provide the rationale for the decision?
3. Emotional: Does the message outline the relevant incentives?

Author: Tom Hunsaker | Source: How to Actually Execute Change at a Company | Subject: Change Management Questions

Direction-setting checklist: Be bold

1. Vision: Do we have a clear and compelling vision that reframes what winning looks like, and is it owned by the whole enterprise?
2. Strategy: Have we created a short list of clearly defined big moves at the enterprise level that will distance us from our competitors?
3. Resource allocation: Are we ‘thinking like an outsider’ to actively reallocate resources (such as dollars, people,

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Authors: Carolyn Dewar, Kurt Strovink, Scott Keller, Vikram Malhotra | Source: The CEO’s essential checklist: Questions every chief executive should be able to answer | Subject: CEO / Executive Questions

1. Put Customer Value First
   • Why do we need to enhance or transform our technology right now?
   • What problems do we expect to solve?
   • How will this change deliver value to our customers?
2. Simplify Your Architecture
   • How can we best simplify our technology systems environment?
   • Where is the modularity in our current system environment? Is it flexible enough for our needs?
   • What data and functionality will be accessible —

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Authors: Leon Cooper, Milan Vyas | Source: 10 principles for modernizing your company’s technology | Subject: IT Questions

Ask for Guidance and Input

Use these questions to get help from your manager on any tasks or projects you are having difficulty with, or to express your need for additional resources, input, or support.

1. I am having some challenges and struggles with X. Can you help me think about how to navigate and address X successfully?
2. Could you suggest any ideas and thoughts around how

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Authors: Cydnei Meredith, Liana Kreamer, Steven G. Rogelberg | Source: 28 Questions to Ask Your Boss in Your One-on-Ones | Subject: Personal and Career Development

The purpose of the “fast friends” exercise is to help create and sustain more meaningful relationships, which is beneficial to overall health, team effectiveness, and business success. The original exercise consists of three sets of 12 questions each. Participants work in pairs and get 15 minutes for each set (10 minutes for an abbreviated version), resulting in 45 minutes (or 30 … [ Read more ]

Authors: Arthur Aron, Edward Melinat, Elaine N. Aron, Renee J. Bator, Robert Darrin Vallone | Source: 36 Questions for Increasing Closeness | Subject: Human Resources Questions

IBM has honed a position since the 1950s when it spoke about and acted on racial justice. The company asks its employees to ask themselves the following five questions.

1. Is the issue directly linked to the business?
2. Does the company have a history of engaging in it?
3. What are the stakeholders saying?
4. What are the competitors doing?
5. Could the company make a meaningful difference by engaging?

At the moment, … [ Read more ]

Author: Lucy Parker | Source: Author Talks: How you can future-proof your business for sustainable, long-term growth | Subject: Social Responsibility Questions

Questions for Assessing Leadership Style

1. What are 1-2 questions you always ask your team members in one-on-one meetings, and why?
2. If I asked someone on your team about your leadership style, what would they say?
3. Tell me about a time when you delved into significant detail and got your hands dirty.
4. What accomplishments are you most proud of? What role did you play?
5. What ritual or practice have

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Source: Hire Better Managers: 35 Interview Questions for Assessing a Candidate | Subject: Human Resources Questions

Companies need to determine how functions best fit into their value-creation narrative. Organizations must answer the following questions:

1. What are the key decisions that business-unit leaders need to make, and what do they need to control? For example, if IT business-application development is a core enabler for a business unit’s growth strategy, how much control does its leader need to ensure that projects are

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Authors: Aaron De Smet, Caitlin Hewes, Elizabeth Mygatt, Kirk Rieckhoff | Source: Redefining corporate functions to better support strategy and growth | Subject: Management Questions

Setting the Stage

The first 10 questions deal with the context in which the brand can be positioned. They set the stage of the brand story, if you will.

1. Redefine your business: What other categories satisfy a similar need or provide the similar emotional reward that yours does? And what opportunities would this new perspective offer for building your brand and your portfolio? (Example: Cirque

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Author: Ulli Appelbaum | Source: 26 Universal Questions for Brand Positioning (and Creating Your Brand Story) | Subject: Marketing Questions

• What is the unique value proposition of the ecosystem you want to create?
• Who has already built ecosystems to create a similar value proposition?
• Do you have the resources and capabilities to be the orchestrator of a new ecosystem and overcome the advantages of the existing ecosystems?
• If trusted partners have the complementary resources you need to create your ecosystem, should you invite them as core partners?
• If

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Authors: Andrew Shipilov, Francesco Burelli | Source: The Five Essential Roles of Corporate Ecosystems | Subject: Strategy Questions