Ron Krukowski's Blog

We have just about ended the first quarter of 2013 (my how time flies)!  Many of us have made new year's resolutions almost 90 days ago and as with every outgoing year, we tend to make lofty goals for the upcoming one. Whether it is to loose weight, stop bad habits, better our finances, advance our careers,  become more spiritual, learn a new skill, take up a new hobby, help more people or maybe it's to go through a multi-faceted personal transformation.  The excitement of bringing these resolutions tend to carry us through the first two weeks of January.  If we are lucky, they will last for at least 30 days following the clinking of our champagne glasses as the New Year enters.  Here is the problem.  We set ourselves up for failure right from the start.  We want instant gratification based on where we are at a given moment.  Take for instance the person who wants to lose 20lbs. They are surfacely focused on losing the 20lbs and that's as...

Through my years as a corporate management consultant, I have witnessed "the good", "the bad" and "the ugly" of projects, teams, and corporate cultures.  At the root of "the worst" that I have observed was the too often embraced behavior of "blame."  Blame is a very toxic behavior that will rapidly unravel the fabric of your organization.     Blame (finger pointing, always looking for external reasons for mistakes) hinders the ability to learn from those mistakes and become more effective. When blame is accepted as part of the organization's culture, it will create very difficult work environments.  Research shows that people in the workplace tend to copy blaming as a behavior, whether consciously or unconsciously, thus perpetuating the problem. Scientific Studies show that when someone is the target of blame, their  brain to goes into  "fight or flight" protection mode.  This results in putting people on the defens...

September 11, 2012 will mark the 12th year anniversary of those horrific events that took place on that day. As a result of those events, Americans bonded together as a family toward a common resolve. We became friendlier, had more tolerance for others, were more respectful, assisted and looked out for each other, had an increased sense of purpose and teamwork in the workplace and our overall appreciation for what we had was at its' highest...but this was temporary and did not last. Today, we are in the midst of many issues; challenged economy, wars overseas, civil unrest in many cities around the world, unemployment challenges, and just an overall feeling of unrest.   Even people who have jobs are more disgruntled than ever with their employers because they feel like their management "just doesn't care about them." There are however many organizations out there who's mission it is to bring Peace to the World. Many organizations such as Green...

I continue to enjoy my career as a management consultant, polishing up on best practices (especially around the soft skills), mentoring and speaking on various management topics and learning from the many people I am fortunate to come in contact with. I have observed many corporate management practices that are very effective as well as those that could be greatly improved upon. One such area that could really use improvement is...transparency. All too often I encounter managers who are reluctant to report an accurate status out of fear. There is a general fear that senior management does not want to see or hear bad news. In fact, at previous clients of mine I was told not to report a RED status on anything (no matter how dire the situation) because it would attract too much negative attention from senior management. Their belief was that a great deal of chaos results when this kind of status is reported. So it strikes me as funny, that although many corporate cultures contin...

So the other night, my 6 year-old daughter Isabelle, had a homework assignment where she had to articulate what she is thankful for this year. When she finished with her list of things she looked at me and said, "Daddy, what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?" "Isabelle, daddy is thankful that he has so much to be thankful for," I replied. She rolled her eyes and gave me this look as if I didn't really answer her question. Isabelle then said, "No really, what are you thankful for daddy?" I knew she wasn't going to let me off of the hook so I replied, "Daddy is thankful for everything in his life!" She contemplated my answer for a moment and then said, "that's cool." And with that, there were no further questions. However, my little 6 year-old had planted a seed that led me to reflect and think about the things I am truly thankful for. Here are a few things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving: I am thankful for my lovi...

Recently, I have been grappling with joining Toastmasters International. For those of you who are not aware, Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development. I have been working in Corporate America for more than 25 years. I have had 15 years of success as an employee within major financial firms rising through the management ranks. Since 2001, I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy much success as an independent management consultant. Along the way, I have given many PowerPoint Presentations to various levels of management both as an employee and now as a consultant. I continue to get asked to speak at various events and really enjoy sharing my knowledge, insights, and stories from my life and business experiences. It really inspires me when someone comes up to me and says that something I have said is relatable and helpful to them. I have been getting requests to increase my speaking engagements. With that, the thought oc...

Have you ever been in a meeting that was totally out of control? In that meeting, did you notice that there was no formal agenda? In that same meeting, did it keep going off point and end up going down the road of too many tangents? During this time, was someone allowed to pontificate on things that had nothing to do with the advancement of the current meeting? In that meeting, was it apparent that the key people needed were not there since every item needed to be followed up on with someone who wasn’t at the meeting? Anytime during this meeting, did you feel that this meeting was going nowhere, your time was being wasted and that you should be doing something more productive? After the meeting, did you notice there was no communications regarding what was discussed, no key decisions or next steps? And finally, at the next follow-up meeting, were you totally "checked out" because the same things were being re-hashed from the last meeting with no evident progress? If you an...