© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Sections of This Topic Include Understand What to Expect from a Professional Consultant Situations When a Consultant is Useful Where to Get Consultants How You Can Make a Consultancy as Productive as Possible Getting and Hiring the Consultant Additional Advice (orienting consultant, evaluating project, avoiding IRS …

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD Applies to for-profits unless otherwise noted. New business leaders and managers have to develop at least basic skills in financial management. Expecting others in the organization to manage finances is clearly asking for trouble. Basic skills in financial management start in the critical areas of cash management and bookkeeping, …

We are bombarded online with thousands of messages every day. Confusion reigns. But no more! Any of these books are terrific, on point, and written by the best in their field. You can confidently choose from any of these and know that you have chosen a gift that hits the bullseye and provides tremendous value.

What is Professional Development? I began this article by looking again at the differences between professional development vs training, or trainers and teachers. In A Look at the Education vs Experience Debate and in an earlier post, What’s the Difference Between Training and Teaching, I made a few comparisons. This time, I thought it might …

1. Using Statistics Accurately/Effectively in Your Proposals by Jayme Sokolow Statistics can be used or abused, especially in grant proposals. However, there are steps you can take to use numbers accurately, and in ways that promote understanding. 2. Events In Private Homes: Part I Education? Cultivation? Solicitation? Stewardship? by Hank Lewis An Executive Director wrote that, “A donor has offered his home for a private event ... [but that she (the ED) has] always shied away from these b/c no one can agree what the purpose/format should be....”

Teams, teams, teams. Whether you love them or loathe them, you’ll have to learn to live, not only with them but within them. Your success as a leader will depend on it. So What’s Teamwork All About? Here are five strategies for building and nurturing a winning team on the football field and in the …

Need for Flexible Approaches to Action Learning My hope is that Action Learning practitioners throughout the world will fully embrace the passion for discovery and active experimentation—the pillars on which our practice is built. Both are essential factors in adapting Action Learning to the evolving needs of our clients. My purpose as an Action Learning …

The Only Form of Problem-Solving What would you say if I were to say there are no secret processes to be had–just the basic process we can apply to every plan we have to make and every problem we have to solve? I hope you would be flabbergasted, but believe me when I say it …

A series of surprises. “I’m really disappointed in Mary’s performance. I may have to let her go. It’s sad. She was clearly the best candidate for the job when we recruited her last year.” But Bill was hard pressed to give his executive coach one concrete example of her sub-par performance. Asked why he had …

I love how social media works to connect people across time and space. I’ve posted several of my blogs and articles on my Facebook page ( www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson) and LinkedIn groups. From one of my posts, I ‘met’ Margot Borden from France. After a few exchanges of ideas, I invited her to write a guest blog …