Respect. Straight talk. Results.

David Porter Advisors

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Coaching

Focus on helping your team perform

Focus on helping your team perform

Late one evening, two leaders and the CFO met in the CFO’s office. The CFO was upset about a perceived lack of effort from his team in completing several initiatives he deemed important. His monologue devolved into personal attacks on each team member as he went down the hall

Blasting through the fear of personal development

Blasting through the fear of personal development

In a recent presentation about enhancing communication and leadership effectiveness in our organizations, I spoke about the role of fear and how it prevents us from doing our best work. It inspired me to explore doing our best work on ourselves. While leading an organization change, I came across a

Overcome limitations stifling our development

Overcome limitations stifling our development

“Is life not a hundred times too short for us to stifle ourselves?” Friedrich Nietzsche When a leader avoids responsibility for his actions, it often shows up as belittling, disingenuous, unsympathetic, incredible, unreliable, and egocentric. This list illustrates the polar opposite of role model leadership attributes. It also reminds us

Knowing where to tap

Knowing where to tap

Once upon a time, a ship’s captain found himself stuck in port due to a broken boiler. He asked around the shipyard for someone who could fix the problem. He was given a name and summoned the repairman who showed up in the form of a 10-year old boy

Leadership whispering during transformation

Leadership whispering during transformation

While working on a company-wide transformation effort with an outstanding cross-functional team, there were frequent opportunities to engage with leaders and employees about what we were doing, why we were doing it, and how we planned to accomplish our vision. Before meeting with executive leaders to enroll their support as

A battle plan against exhaustion

A battle plan against exhaustion

Some owners and leaders are waking up exhausted today. They spend a few extra minutes in the shower, stare into the mirror with tired eyes, and drink an extra cup of coffee. Once outside, they stare at the wall with both hands on the wheel before starting the car. They

Five things that make HR work difficult

Five things that make HR work difficult

I’ve spent time as a senior HR leader and more time as an internal client. Unlike other company functions (i.e., accounting), there is significant variation in how HR work is designed (often haphazardly) and deployed across organizations. There is an ongoing question of how HR earns a seat