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I advise clients regarding talent management, workforce analytics, and large-scale organizational transformations.
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Best of the Issue: The Right Ways to Cut Costs
Don’t Eliminate Your Middle Managers
Future of Work Summit | event by forbes
cohort of CEOs, chief people officers, thought leaders and talent executives convene for a day of conversations, insights and ideas about the changes shaping the workplace.
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"This is a surprisingly sprightly book, full of personal insights, experiences and regrets. "
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work: because business is about people
Why boards need human CEOs
(but won’t hire them from HR)
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Middle managers serve the most important role — but companies waste their talent
Middle managers are the people who are at least once removed from the front line and at least a layer below the senior leadership. High-performing middle managers are the beating heart of any successful talent ecosystem. As the nature of work changes at a breakneck pace, middle managers will play an increasingly vital role. But companies aren't using them properly
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Beleaguered middle managers are often our organizations’ most valuable players
Middle managers are often derided. Indeed, their prime value in some organizationsis that they can be the first targets in a downsizing, easily eliminated because theirimpact is hidden and downplayed, if not mocked.
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Why class still proves an obstacle to careers
Social inequality at work is still an under-addressed issue, plus the Office Therapy advice column
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Ask this question to identify the most influential managers on your team
"Identifying these high-value positions can be done through a survey with one single question: 'Who do you turn to when you want to find out what's going on around here?' Inevitably, the same names will turn up on many of the surveys," the three authors write in an excerpt from the book.
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Who's the Most Influential Person on Your Team? This 1 Question Will Tell You
You can't always find who actually wields the most influence in a workplace by looking at the org chart. That will tell who is the head, but not who is the neck. So, how do you pinpoint the member of any given team with the most influence? On Quartz recently, Bill Schaninger, Bryan Hancock, and Emily Field, the authors of a new book on middle management titled Power to the Middle, offer a suggestion.
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Middle Management Has Already Gone Through Massive Change, Can It Stay Relevant In Today's Economy?
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Art Petty interviews Bill Schaninger, co-author of Power to the Middle for The Experts channel.
Bill Schaninger, co-author along with Bryan Hancock and Emily Field lay out a strong case for senior managers to rethink the role and their support for managers in the middle of our organizations in their book, Power to The Middle.
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The Bosshole® Chronicles
Bill Schaninger, Ph.D. - Power to the Middle (Part 1)
We welcome Dr. Bill Schaninger to The Bosshole® Chronicles! Newly retired (but not slowing down), Bill dives into the book he recently co-authored entitled Power to the Middle. This fresh perspective on middle management is a must-read for organizations that wish to avoid pushing their managers into The Bosshole® Zone.
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THE BOSSHOLE® CHRONICLES
Bill Schaninger, Ph.D. - Power to the Middle (Part 2)
Welcome to Part 2 of our discussion with Dr. Bill Schaninger! Newly retired (but not slowing down), Bill dives into the book he recently co-authored entitled Power to the Middle. This fresh perspective on middle management is a must-read for organizations that wish to avoid pushing their managers into The Bosshole® Zone.
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Middle Management Has Already Gone Through Massive Change, Can It Stay Relevant In Today's Economy?
This Was Kevin McCarthy's Fatal Flaw As A Leader That Cost Him Speaker Position: Leadership Expert
Bill Schaninger, Ph.D., Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey & Company, joins "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the leadership failures of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in the wake of his ousting from the Speakership.
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How to deal with ‘administrivia’ | Managers at Work
“When we strategize and see how we can delegate, how we can minimize, and how we can quickly do the tasks that we have to do, we maintain our power and things get done faster and with more enjoyment.”
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Some employees are destroying value. Others are building it. Do you know the difference?
More than half of employees report being relatively unproductive at work. New research into six types of employees shows how companies can re-engage workers while amplifying the impact of star performers.
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Performance through people: Transforming human capital into competitive advantage
MGI’s previous research has shown that human capital development pays off for workers, with skills learned on the job accounting for almost half of the average person’s lifetime earnings. But does investing in people actually benefit companies? Most business leaders agree that it’s the right thing to do. But they are less clear on how those efforts relate to the bottom line—and why some organizations are so much more effective than others at turning human capital into a real competitive advantage.
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In Praise Of The Middle Manager
What is critical and controllable is the quality of leadership, Schaninger says, from those for whom managing someone is a new muscle to veteran managers trying to inspire people in a new world. These are the carriers of culture, the coaches, the critics, the often unsung catalysts for success. “Good leaders also help people see their purpose,” he says. “They understand the vision. They know how to communicate it. And they know how to help the individuals come together as a team.”
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AI x FoW Summit: What Problem Is AI Actually Solving for the Global Workforce?
Our CEO & Founder, Athena Karp, joined esteemed panelists Obed Louissant, CPO & SVP at Aptiv, Bill Schaninger, Senior Partner at Modern Executive Partners, and Lauren Weber, Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, to delve deep into the world of AI in HR.
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24 HR Leaders To Follow In 2024
Bill has been a Senior Partner with McKinsey & Company for more than 23 years and has recently joined Modern Executive Solutions in the same role. In his career, Bill has advised executive leaders to strengthen their business performance by focusing on the three key areas of talent, values, and culture.
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The Top 23 Leadership Books of 2023
Three McKinsey thought leaders explain how middle managers are uniquely positioned close to the ground but with a crucial connection to company strategy, enabling them to guide their organizations through periods of rapid and complex change, as well as to help shape the new world of work.
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Bill Schaninger Breaks Down The Key Workplace Trends Of 2023
Bill Schaninger, Senior Partner of Modern Executive Solutions, joins "Forbes Talks" to discuss the past year's workplace trends, AI, and the segregation of Corporate America.
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The Ten Best Business Books Of 2023
As the authors—three McKinsey consultants—admit, this idea has not been entirely foreign to them in the past. It was the pandemic that made them realize that pastoral care offered by middle managers is not easily measured but incredibly valuable. Baby boomers continue to retire and labour shortage will get worse. That’s where companies with a strong layer of middle managers will have an edge.
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Workers to organizations: We’re just not that into you
More than half of employees say they’re disengaged at work—with implications for both morale and value creation. Do any of these behaviors seem familiar?
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The best HR & People Analytics articles of 2023
Performance through people: Transforming human capital into competitive advantage
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Mass layoffs often hit middle managers. The cuts are largely short-sighted
Experienced workers get caught in the crosshairs of widescale layoffs. It may make shareholders happy, but the move can spell bad news for long-term business.
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The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding
Skilled middle managers foster collaboration, inspire employees, and link important functions at companies.
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LONG LIVE THE MIDDLE MANAGER
Schaninger speaks from his experience of more than 20 years at McKinsey, arguing that middle managers should be seen as the company's most valuable asset and the glue that holds the organization together. Their organizational location means that they are in touch with what is going on 'on the floor', while at the same time being in contact with senior management and the overall strategy.
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Rethinking the role of the middle manager
Companies need to uplift their much-maligned middle managers. Not merely a midpoint to the top, they are the true center of the organization.
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Human Capital Tailwinds To Drive Growth And M&A Activity For High End Recruitment Sector
No. 22 Modern Executive Solutions earned the distinction as the fastest growing search firm of 2023, rising 40 percent. No. 7 ZRG Partners, which moved up two spots on the rankings, was up 31 percent driven by programmatic M&A, giving it the distinction as the fastest growing search firm among the Top 20.
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How the Disney proxy battle is a win for impact investing and stakeholder capitalism
leadership consultant Bill Schaninger, that’s money well spent. “They have to be on the right side of history for Disney’s brand and employees,” says Schaninger, who led the global talent practice at McKinsey before becoming senior partner at Modern Executive Solutions.
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