A Flexible Approach to Planning
Today’s leaders confront a more profoundly uncertain business environment than most of them have ever faced.\n\nUncertainty of this magnitude will leave some leaders standing in the dust. The task of business leaders must be to overcome the paralysis that dooms any organization and to begin shaping the future.To avoid impulsive, uncoordinated, and ultimately ineffective responses, companies […]
OneOC launches Board Excellence Series
Key to the health and sustainability of any nonprofit is recruiting and retaining highly qualified, engaged, skilled, enthusiastic people to serve on the board. Today OneOC launched a three-part Board Excellence series featuring Janine McDonald, LaVal Brewer and Paul VanDolah as facilitators.\n Over a dozen Orange County nonprofits attended the first workshop to learn how to […]
Shut Up and Listen
Good listening—the active and disciplined activity of probing and challenging the information garnered from others to improve its quality and quantity—is the key to building a base of knowledge that generates fresh insights and ideas.\n\nPut more strongly, good listening can often mean the difference between success and failure in business ventures AND in life.\n\nBy recognizing […]
Gender Matters
When Dr. Judy Rosener published “Ways Women Lead” in the Harvard Business Review in 1990 she put forth the idea that men and women exhibit different kinds of leadership attributes. She did not say one style was better or worse than the other, but that they were different and that organizations were best served by […]
Build Better Relationships with DiSC
Community Senior Serv (CSS) an Orange County nonprofit dedicated to meeting the needs of older adults, engaged Janine McDonald in affiliation with OneOC to provide training for 130 employees including kitchen staff, case managers and executives. Their mission is to improve the quality of life for older adults and their families by creating a safety […]
CAI Event: Boost Your Personal Productivity
McDonald was the keynote speaker at the recent Community Association Institute event at the Irvine, Marriott to a sold crowd of 350 on the subject of Boosting Personal Productivity. Participants were eager to discover the negotiable components of requests for their time, how to identify and avoid time traps and pitfalls as well has how to […]
Leading in a Matrix Organization
In a matrix organization the emphasis is on sharing expert/specialist resources across projects that may, themselves, have shared leadership between project management and functional management. Because of this, for a matrix organization to be successful, it must emphasize team, collaboration, communication, relationships, accountability and shared systems and processes.\n\n \n\nThe ability to be proactive and act independently, […]
The Idea of Wrong Thinking
“I love this idea of wrong thinking-of encouraging people who have ideas to go see if they work and not dismissing them just because they sound like the wrong solution. No has the right answer at the beginning. I made 5,127 prototypes of the bagless vacuum before I got it right.” James Dyson, Found […]
The Best Gift
Let’s be honest, while it’s wonderful to give, it’s not so bad to receive either. I especially look forward to the gifts my son makes for me. This year I was even more touched by the wrapping. \n\nWhile I have several academic degrees on the wall, what I’ve learned about parenting is by trial and error. […]
DiSC for Improved Performance
J9 Leading Solutions hosted students, faculty and staff at the Center for Energy & Sustainability at Cal State L.A. for a team building workshop to enhance and improve communication and team work using DiSC.\n\nDiSC Profiles have been used for over 40 years to help individuals improve job performance, increase their job satisfaction, and work more […]