The Ayers Perspective
Are You Ready for Change?
by William L. Ayers, Jr. VP & Business Unit Leader
 I broke bread with HR executives from a dozen major companies during the first weeks of the new year to get a sense of their expansion plans for 2010. The gist of what they said is that they are selectively hiring – mostly refilling key positions that had been cut – to prepare for an eventual turnaround. Some are cherry picking talent from competitors. This should set off alarms in your head, especially in light of recent job satisfaction survey results issued by the Conference Board.
[View the Full Story]
|
The Director's Chair
The Next Wave: Leading Companies Back on Course
by Joan Caruso, Managing Director, Organizational Effectiveness Practice
 If we have any hope of stimulating economic recovery, there are two things corporate leaders need to do right now: rebuild leadership credibility and lead by reengagement. And they need to do them simultaneously. Rebuilding leadership credibilityThe reality is that the people who need to lead us into recovery are, in many cases, the same people who led us into the recession. That raises concerns about credibility. If you’re an employee right now, what you’re probably thinking is, “How am I supposed to look up to you for leadership when I believe you helped create the mess we’re in?”
[View the Full Story]
|
Career Transition - Around The World of Ayers - An Update
by Terry Ebert, Managing Director, Career Transition Services
 A year ago, Ayers announced the expansion of its career transition practice into the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in partnership with BTI, a sister Kelly company well established in the region, and into Eastern Europe. [ 2009 Vol. 1, Ayers Perspective] “It was all about making strategic use of our Kelly connection to better serve our clients – particularly during the global recession, with so many companies downsizing operations in multiple markets around the world,” says Terry Ebert, Managing Director of Career Transition Services. “Looking back over the past year, we are very pleased with the progress we have made in these regions. Four of our APAC offices – Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Seoul – are now licensed members of Career Partners International. CPI recently approved licenses for the offices in Moscow and Budapest.
[View the Full Story]
|
Ayers Leadership Series
Purpose-Driven Leadership
by Rolf Kleiner, Senior VP, Kelly Outsourcing & Consulting Group
 The question of how to stay engaged, focused, and effective in achieving our objectives during such difficult times is often raised these days. I would like to offer a view on the critical importance of leadership through purpose-driven behavior. Purpose can be self-inspired or created through inspirational leadership. An example is the story of the janitor at NASA, which goes something like this: During a tour of the NASA Space Center late one day, President Johnson and his entourage came upon a janitor at work in the building where the lunar module was housed. When asked by the president what his role at NASA was, the janitor pointed at the spacecraft and responded, “To help get that thing up to the moon.” This so impressed the president that it stayed with him for years.
[View the Full Story]
|
A View From the Top
Helping C-Level
|
Joseph Bruccoleri
Director
|
John Artise
Strategic Sales Manager
| Working with executives at the most senior level has always been integral to both of the Ayers Group's practices: executive coaching and career transition. That expertise has been consolidated in Platinum ServicesTM -a spectrum of offerings to help transitioning C-level executives fully understand, explore, and take advantage of their options and opportunites.
The Ayers Report talked with John Artise and Joe Bruccoleri, the lead consultants working with executives currently taking advantage of this premier offering, to get their thoughts about what makes Platinum Services unique.
[View the Full Story]
|
New Entrepreneurial Programs Offer a Window Onto Going It Alone
by Alan Silberberg, Senior Executive Consultant
 “Start by believing in yourself and your product or service,” was among the advice would-be entrepreneurs received at Ayers’ November Entrepreneurial Forum. The inauguration of a quarterly program directed by Executive Career Transition Consultant Alan Silberberg, the forum featured alumni of the firm’s career transition program who recently started their own businesses: a boutique law firm, cloud-technology consultancy, marketing/communications agency, and training enterprise. The entrepreneurs shared their thoughts and advice through individual presentations and questions posed by Silberberg
[View the Full Story]
|
Lessons on Leadership From Two Fronts
by Dave Fitzgerald
With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve all become aware of Americans who juggle parallel careers as civilians and reservists. For senior HR executive Dave Fitzgerald, the juggling lasted three decades.
After four years in the Army as an armored cavalry officer during the Cold War, Dave reentered civilian life as a sales rep at Pfizer. He excelled at sales and progressed into a leadership role before finding his real love: HR. Today, he is VP-HR at Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) with responsibility for the Federal Solutions and Transportation Solutions groups.
On a parallel track, Dave joined the Army Reserve, working his way from Civil Affairs to Special Forces, the Military Police, and, finally, Logistics. He served a tour of duty in Iraq and one that involved going back and forth between Iraq and Afghanistan while working for the Pentagon. As a commander at the largest Army logistics base in Iraq, Dave was responsible for 10,000 soldiers and civilians and multimillions of dollars in supplies. He retired just three months ago with the rank of Colonel, turning down the opportunity to attain the rank of General Officer because he’d missed enough of his son’s college football games.
[View the Full Story]
|
Ayers Speaking Engagement
Ayers Director Joe Bruccoleri gave a presentation on the “Role of HR in Talent Management & Coaching” to attendees of the November meeting of the Gateway affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management in Jersey City, NJ. The program qualified for HRCI credit.
|
Consultants' Corner
Competencies That Create Comfort With Constant Change
by Eileen Morgan, Ph.D
 Change has become the new status quo. Increasingly rapid shifts in industry sectors, geopolitics, economics, and technology intersect every day for business leaders. It is essential that leaders become comfortable with a norm of constant change. The competencies that brought individuals to leadership positions in the past are necessary but no longer sufficient to meet current challenges.
[View the Full Story]
|
Successful Landings
Tapping Previous Skills and Contacts
After four years as Treasury Group VP for a major bond insurer, the candidate wanted to shift from financial services to a senior management role in manufacturing. She hoped to draw on business development and M&A experience gained during eleven years at a major investment bank.
[View the Full Story]
|
