Surviving or Thriving? Prospering Through Purpose
Today's volatile and complex global economy creates significant corporate risks that executives must effectively manage and resolve. The most prominent risks are financial and cyber threats. Others, though, such as leadership, strategic and succession planning and execution, team building,...
Deep Coaching: No One Size Fits All
James de Gaspé Bonar Ph.D., CEC, PCC June 18, 2017 Our approach to executive coaching is based on the firm belief that each client is unique and has specific needs, challenges, opportunities and practical goals. One size doesn't fit all! In our practice we have identified the risks and benefits of...
Thriving in a World of Exponential Change Through Deep Coaching
The pace of change we are currently experiencing is unparalleled in human history. This is due in large part to exponential technological change coupled with the instantaneous dissemination of ideas and information across an increasingly connected world. (See Duleesha Kulasooriya and Maggie Wooll,...
An Enduring Question: Can a Company Have a Soul?
One of my coaching clients asked me recently if a company can have a soul. This question is very common in today’s fiercely competitive business environment - witness a recent search on Google came up with over 100 million results. Based on my experience with executives and a review of the best...
Economic Sustainability & the Environment
This is the fifth and final post in our series on stakeholders’ value creation in volatile times. It deals with the threats and opportunities the environment poses to economic sustainability. The Threat: Innovation, technology and resource conservation are core sustainability issues to business...
The Complex Case of Customers as Stakeholders
This is the fourth in a series on stakeholders’ value creation. The case of customers as stakeholders appears self-evident. Simply, a company cannot exist without customers. The purpose of every business centers on creating customer value. Forgetting that customers are the ultimate decision makers...
The Case for Employees as Stakeholders
This post is the third in a series on stakeholders’ value creation in volatile times. As traditional and social media unfailingly reiterate, we are living in turbulent and potentially dangerous times. Traditional spheres of political and economic power are mutating rapidly. Established values are...
Value Creation in Volatile Times: The Case for Ethical & Socially Responsible Companies
This post is the second in a series on Stakeholders’ Value Creation. Large publicly traded multinationals are considered by some to be the real centres of power of the global economy in the 21st century, where technology and innovation are integral to success (See James McRichie, The Individuals...
CEOs & Stakeholders’ Value Creation
The primary goal of CEOs is to leave a meaningful legacy, something greater than themselves and the organizations they lead. They aspire to accomplish the extraordinary. Today’s legacies differ from yesterday’s. We are in the midst of a historic transition where old paradigms are giving way to new...
Complexity, Volatility, Purpose & Leadership
At the Bonar Institute for Purposeful Leadership, we work with executives who are dealing with the demands of increasingly complex problems in a volatile and uncertain global economy. The most recent example is the immediate and dramatic global reaction to the “Brexit” result. In the past, issues...
Risk Mitigation for Businesses in Early Stages of Development: The HR Imperative
The dynamics underlying the everyday business situations of companies in early stages of development is a particular focus of the Bonar Institute for Purposeful Leadership. We are currently working on developing an effective and practical customized Leadership Risk Mitigation Program to help...
Succession Planning: Skills Gap & Corporate Risk
In our volatile, uncertain, complex and inter-connected world, the challenges facing corporate executives are often outpacing their cognitive abilities. This is undermining the sustainability of companies across North America, Europe and Asia. The need to find the right leader to navigate their...
Reframing: The Hallmark of Great Leaders
The challenges facing today’s corporate leaders often outpace their cognitive abilities. Errors, failures and chaos are an everyday occurrence in the life of an organization – some are small, others are catastrophic such as the 2008 Wall Street debacle. Calamities occur because executives are...
CEO Performance & Board Oversight
Corporate governance is under increasing scrutiny. Intense competition, a shifting marketplace, increased regulatory review and activist stakeholders - these are the hallmarks of the myriad complex challenges facing today’s corporate boards. Directors are the stewards of their corporations. They...
Great Leaders: The Competencies Imperative
Many believe that business leaders have the requisite competencies to manage their companies capably. Ah, but do they? At the Bonar Institute for Purposeful Leadership we see many clients struggle, some stumble, as they move into new management positions. In a recent issue of The Economist...
Are You Overwhelmed While Other Leaders Thrive?
Today’s headlines point to an economy in a state of unusual volatility and uncertainty. The ongoing energy sector meltdown, the decline of metals, minerals and gold prices, weak aggregate demand, as well as a Chinese growth and currency crisis have all been contributing factors. The mixed global...
Avoiding the Rush to Action
In my coaching practice, I encounter executives who are confronting unexpected crises, some which even threaten the ongoing sustainability of their businesses. The pressures on these leaders are great. They feel an urgency to act - quickly - to mitigate the risk to their organizations; and, longer...
Why New Leaders Fail
In my coaching practice, I see organizations struggle because they fail to offer key executive hires the support they require to successfully integrate into their new organization, their new position, and to learn the intricacies of the corporate culture. This support is a process called executive...
Organizational Change: From Cluelessness to Reframing
In a world that is becoming ever more turbulent and complex, organizations are pervasive and dominant. The challenges facing leaders often outpace their cognitive abilities. Indeed Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal (Reframing Organizations, 2003) speak of the “curse of cluelessness” that afflicts many...
Coaching as Alchemy
What a wonderful metaphor for the coaching experience. As the sacred practice of alchemy transforms base metal into gold, and transmutes physical consciousness into higher awareness, the experience of being coached by a master fosters the personal and organizational transformation of even the most...