Andy O’Connor said no the first time his father asked him to join the business. That’s not usually how a thirty-fifth-anniversary piece starts, but it’s true, and it says something about how the next three and a half decades actually went: mostly figured out one decision at a time. This year, AJO marks 35 years […]
Succession planning sounds like a document. In practice it almost never arrives as a structured ask or a deliverable. It begins as a phone call, and the people making that call have different needs and questions. Some of them are thinking three years ahead. Many are already reacting to something. The catalyst matters deeply in […]
We know more about how teams work than we ever have. There are decades of research available. Models that most leaders have been trained on more than once. More ways to communicate, coordinate, monitor progress, and stay connected than any previous generation of leaders had available. But the truth is, leadership teams are still hard […]
Decades ago, leadership mostly looked like direction-setting. A leader made a call, the organization executed, and there wasn’t much conversation in between. That model held up reasonably well. The pace of change was slow enough that a decision made this quarter usually still made sense by the time it took effect. That pace doesn’t exist […]
Two questions get asked before almost every technology decision: Can we do it? Should we do it, financially? Far less time gets spent asking what it will actually feel like for the people living through it. Building the rollout plan is operational work. Getting people through it is a leadership challenge, and the two are […]
Every organization is navigating change. For some, it’s AI and emerging technologies. For others, it’s restructuring, evolving business models, succession planning, shifting workforce expectations, or increasing market pressure. The specific challenge may be different, but one pattern remains remarkably consistent: Organizations spend significant time planning the change itself and far less time preparing people for […]
The headlines may be different, but the feeling is familiar. Organizations today are navigating rapid advances in AI, shifting workforce expectations, economic uncertainty, organizational restructuring, and an almost constant stream of change. Leaders are being asked to make decisions faster, operate with less certainty, and support teams through an environment that often feels unpredictable. It’s […]
One of the biggest misconceptions organizations make is treating coaching and performance management as if they are the same thing. Both matter and both play an important role in leadership and development, but they serve different purposes. When those lines get blurred, leaders and employees often end up frustrated. At AJO, one of the conversations […]
Leadership Looks Different Today Leadership has always been challenging, but the expectations placed on leaders today feel fundamentally different than they did even a few years ago. Organizations are moving faster, teams are leaner, and change is more constant. Leaders are being asked to navigate uncertainty while continuing to move work forward and create stability […]
And How to Actually Start Them There are conversations that most leaders know they need to have. The knowing tends to come from instinct, from experience, from the quiet awareness that builds over time when you work closely with people. Something in the organization feels off. Expectations are not being met. A behavior is showing […]
