Michael Sabbag

Most leaders think misalignment is a strategy problem. It's not. It's a people problem that cost the organization in many ways. And most organizations are paying that cost without realizing it. I worked with a leadership team that argued constantly but never actually decided anything. Every executive meeting ended with unresolved tension and no clear direction. So, everyone walked back to their function and did what made sense to them. Here's what that looked like in practice

I once worked with an executive team that thought they were aligned. Every meeting ran smoothly. When the COO spoke, heads nodded. Decisions got made quickly. On the surface, it looked like a high-functioning team. But after the meetings, the hallway conversations told a different story. Executives were privately questioning the risks of decisions to which they had just publicly agreed. People felt they couldn't voice a different point of view during the meeting. And when eve

Is your L&D strategy still living in 2010? Most organizations don't realize it is. The signs are subtle but once you see them, you can't unsee them. Here are 5 signs your L&D strategy is stuck in the past:1. Your L&D team waits to be told what to build. 1. If your trainers are order-takers waiting for a manager to say "we need a training on X" then that's a 2010 mindset. Modern L&D professionals sit at the table with leaders, diagnose the real root cause of performance is

Most executive teams think they have an execution problem. They don't. They have a cohesion problem. I've worked with enough leadership teams to know the signs: meetings that produce activity but not decisions, priorities that shift with whoever has the most political capital, accountability that exists on paper but evaporates under pressure. And underneath all of it there is a group of talented individuals who are not actually functioning as a team. Patrick Lencioni ca

$1.2 million. That's what broken performance management was costing us every year. Not in consultant fees. Not in HR overhead. In turnover. When I became the SVP of Talent at Learn.com , the company didn’t have a performance management process. Some managers met with their employees regularly. Some never did. There were no annual reviews or structured conversations on development. But people were leaving. Constantly. And when we dug into the exit data, the story was painful a

Organizations say they want high performers. They want to only hire the best because “people are their greatest asset”. However, that’s a li

No matter what role we are in, we all have the responsibility to lead. This can mean a lot of things and look different depending on the sit

One factor that is critical in order for people to perform is tools and resources they need to effectively and efficiently do their job. In

Have you ever seen a star performer hired just to flounder where you work? In this post, Michael discuss the environment factor and how it i

What role does ones talent play in their performance. And how does that impact their perceived fit? In this post, Michael defines this facto

What separates an exemplary performer from an average one? In this post, Michael discusses the 7 Factors Model he created to help drive perf

When we hire someone to do a job, we usually define what that job is and the abilities people need to have in order to excel. In this post,

There's not much more important than the way we introduce people to our company. Done right and people come in engaged and wanting to contri