Comments for Oher & Associates, Inc.

Comment on About Jim Oher by jimoher

jimoher — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:37:48 +0000

Thanks
What made it great for you?

Comment on About The Hard Lines by jimoher

jimoher — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:37:31 +0000

What made this pleasurable for you?

Comment on About The Hard Lines by jimoher

jimoher — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:37:10 +0000

what did you find particularly helpful?

Comment on About The Hard Lines by Delly

Delly — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:04:06 +0000

I thank you humbly for sharing your wdisom JJWY

Comment on Progressive Social Policy Be Damned or Build Baby Build by Isaac Gonzalez

Isaac Gonzalez — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:19:34 +0000

radio news are very important and timely so i always listen to it*~~

Comment on SELF DELUSION by ian miller

ian miller — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:29:07 +0000

Jim,
The fly in the ointment of self-delusion is our span of attention!
Psychologists have demonstrated that our human span of cognitive control is only 8 items at a time, +/- 3: what this means, over time, is the conditioning of very few spheres of attention that mean something to us, subjectively.

The thing about comedy is that this limitation of attention is humorously demonstrated to us: that, I think, is also the power you describe in Lear: that awareness costs us something—- and that something is the anxiety of knowing, of disconfirming what we’d thought was so.

Very few of us are willing to expand our horizons at the cost of feeling anxious: so we tack to the other side—- and attempt to shut down uncertainty with premature closure, which at least has the virtue of not shaking us up too much!

To keep self-delusion at bay, we have to develop ways to tolerate the intolerable shakiness induced by not knowing!

Let me know when you’ve nailed that one: I’ll be your first angel investor!

Comment on Is Dullness Destiny? by Jim Oher

Jim Oher — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:50:12 +0000

please go to blog post on July 4th for a comment from CEO Peter Mattoon
I will comment on all your comments this week. Thank you again for your input!

Comment on Is Dullness Destiny? by Steve Mosley

Steve Mosley — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:25:49 +0000

I am going to take a different tack than John P. did in his excellent post. I need to remind myself that there are thousands of CEOs across the country, and tens of thousands across the world. So I don’t want to generlaize too broadly in my thoughts. I respect the research and agree with much of its findings. As I think back on CEOs of companies I worked for (and considering I am one myself now), many of those traits mentioned were present in these individuals. If there is no correlation then, to people skills and success in the CEO world, then I suggest it may be due to many CEOs settling for good, versus great. Not to be trite with that phrase, but when success is measured at the CEO position by return to shareholder, which it is in the vast majority of companies, then what is the motivation to reach a little deeper and become highly skilled in human behavior? I suggest it is the exceptional CEO who is not satisfied with just being an excellent strategist and financial analyst. It is the rare one who wants to be excellent as a communicator, coach, influencer, mentor, motivator as well. After all, that is asking a lot of anyone, right? So as coaches, we would always love the opportunity to work with a CEO who is willing to be challenged, provoked, and encouraged to develop these skills as well. But I believe that for us, these assignments will be just as rare as the CEO willing to tackle them.

Comment on Is Dullness Destiny? by John P

John P — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:51:12 +0000

I haven’t read Brooks’ opinion piece but I can get the jest of it from the posting and the two comments. First, I note that the post and the comments don’t really agree with one another. In fact, they all seem to take this topic into far ranging fields. However, I tend to agree with the poster here. From my experience the CEOs and Executive VPs are not your ‘best executors’. The are not always the ones that demonstrate functional prowess. I mean, simply look at the career path of CEOs. Nardelli leaves GE and heads up Home Depot. The previous CEO from Southland Corporation goes to head up Blockbuster, and then to Pearl Eye Centers. Do you think its because these guys knew more about these businesses than ALL of the people who worked at these companies long before the CEO jumped ship? Of course not. These are political lions. I’m not saying they have great people skills, I would suggest that they lack the humilty and sincerity for that. They are political people. They conjole, persuade, charm . . . manipulate. They have a resume and can exploit it. They surround themselves with ‘yes-people’ and preach how important dissent is, while surreptitiously expunging the inner circle of any dissenters. So, I think Jim is correct in this case. As stated by other responders, coaching provides some particular challenges because these folks are notoriously tone-deaf.

Comment on Is Dullness Destiny? by Steven K Levine

Steven K Levine — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:19:10 +0000

It is not surprising that ‘people skills’ do not correlate with CEO success. They are employed to get positive results, regardless of whether their subordinates are abused and exhausted or inspired and energetic.

The type of coach chosen probably depends on the ‘people skills’ of the coach.

We disagree with Brooks on ‘people skills.’ Great leaders get results and leave the people they work with inspired and energetic.