The multigenerational workplace

multigenerational workforce

Why a better understanding of the multigenerational workplace is a no-brainer.

The co-existence of different generations in the workplace is the reality of today’s workplace and has been a topic of interest and debates for several decades. A significant amount of research has been conducted by academics, researchers, practitioners and consultants to analyze this phenomenon. Much attention has been received on this particular topic as a multigenerational workplace is not only inevitable but comes with its many challenges and opportunities. In most Western economies, four generations are working side by side. Soon, there will be five generations sharing the workspace with a fifth generation entering the workforce in the near future. Various generations working together have created numerous conflicts but also new opportunities have emerged.

Different generations appear to have unique characteristics, sets of unique values and beliefs, different expectations and those differences impact every aspect of the workplace as a result of shared events and experiences. Hence it is key to first understand the essence of each generation: who they are, what their needs and wants are, and what motivates them. Getting a deep insight into each specific generation will allow managers to overcome issues related to a multigenerational workforce and seize opportunities to create a better, happier and sustainable workplace.

The impact of a multigenerational workforce is tremendous as it can impact on the performance and success of organizations. Failing to understand generational differences may affect an organization on many levels: lower performance, decreased motivation and job satisfaction, higher turnover rates or intentions to leave the company, loss of key human capital and the negative effects of conflicts. The task for Human Resources management will be increasingly complex as they will need to implement appropriate policies to attract, retain, motivate, and reward staff ensuring that they select the right incentives to target and interest the workers from each different generation.Generational differences may cause misunderstandings which can lead to conflicts among employees or with managers which may result in impacting the performance, productivity and job satisfaction of the workforce, as well as the performance of the organization.

However, different generations in a workforce can also bring new ideas and perspectives to an organization. This diversity has the potential to infuse creativity and result in the generation of innovative solutions to organizational issues and decision situations. Generational differences in the workplace can thus bring positives and negatives depending on how organizations acknowledge, understand and integrate these generational differences into their corporate policies and practices to bridge apparent generation gaps and create a workforce which enables the organization to perform successfully. A better understanding of each generation, its workplace needs and how each generation can effectively interact in the workplace can minimize some of the negative impacts on organizational performance. Whilst generational diversity in an organization presents management challenges, it can also equip the organisation with the capacity to address the generational diversity and range of preferences for each generation present in the organization’s customers and clients.

Finding ways that assist employees to understand and effectively communicate with other employees from different generations within the organization can provide benefits such as workplace commitment, harmony and loyalty.

This topic has gained further interest recently as the “war for talent” encourages companies to nurture their human capital by better understanding their workforce’s desires, needs, motivators, and expectations to make sure they don’t lose their human assets to competition and to ensure they continuously manage to attract and retain the best talents. As Tulgan (2004, p4) put it, as the workforce will shrink “every skilled worker of every age will be needed”. In addition, with declining birth rates and longer life expectancy in most industrialized nations, employees are remaining in the workplace longer: more generations are and will be sharing the workspace in the future. This is not a short-term phenomenon (Yu and Miller, 2005). Hence, the importance of examining thoroughly the multigenerational workplace, its characteristics and implications for employees and their interactions and its possible impact on organizational performance. This view is also supported by Mc Guire et al. (2007).

Although there has been discussion in the management literature on the general topic of the multigenerational workforce, its management challenges and its expected effect on organizational performance, the relationship between generational values and work related outcomes has not been fully established. The focus of existing literature is on describing the differences in values, beliefs and meanings for each generation in society and assuming that such differences with have similar effects when encountered in the workplace.

In order to effectively and strategically manage the performance of organizations there needs to be increased understanding of the differences in values, beliefs and meanings for each generation in an organizational workplace. A detailed understanding of the differences in values, beliefs and meanings for each generation in an organizational workplace through research and analysis should then provide a sound basis for the formulation of multigenerational management strategies and initiatives that address the needs of each generation in the workplace and contribute to organizational performance.

By Elodie Destruel

Bibliography :

Mc Guire, D., By, R., and Hutchings, K. (2007). Towards a Model of Human Resources Solutions for Achieving Intergenerational Interaction in Organisations, Journal of European Industrial Training, 31, 8, 592-608.

Tulgan, B. (2004). Trends point to a dramatic generational shift in the future workforce, Employment Relations Today, 30, 4, 23-31.

How Ethical Are You ?

Henry Ford said “a business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business”. I would add business without ethics is a poor kind of business.

I’m taking the opportunity of the Panama Papers scandal to sit and reflect on the notions of Ethics and Morals. You’ll find below a good introduction of the basic concepts of Ethics. What is Ethics? What does it mean to do the right thing? Is it a universal concept?

Barbara Etter speaking at the AELC Innovation Club in the video (so good to hear the Aussie accent!), gives us a simple definition and defines Integrity as being ” what you do when nobody is looking”. Yes, acting ethically whether in your private life or in business is what you do and how you behave in line with your set of moral standards and values that you stand for whatever the circumstances, whether somebody is watching or not.

On paper, that looks good and we would all consider ourselves ethical. But read the little case below, and answer honestly what you would do faced with this ethical dilemma :

John is the captain of a submarine. An explosion has caused the sub to lose most of its oxygen supply and has injured a crewman who is bleeding badly and is going to die from his wound no matter what happens. The remaining oxygen is not sufficient for the entire crew to make it to the surface. The only way to save the other crew members is for John to shoot dead the injured crewman now. Then there will be just enough oxygen for the rest of the crew to survive. Is it morally acceptable for John to shoot the injured crewman?

There is no incontestably right answer here. Is taking one life morally right to save many ? The Utilitarian approach would justify this choice.

More cases on ethics :

Urgency vs. Importance Matrix to Get Stuff Done

While I was doing my MBA, I came cross this matrix that changed my life forever. It is not an overstatement. Understanding the fine distinction between these two simple candid words URGENT and IMPORTANT  has been such an eye-opening experience.

I had never realised that urgent and important were two different terms that I had been interchangeably using  my whole life. I also got to understand that working more didn’t mean working better or being more successful.

Rather my aim has become to work smarter not more. Thought I would share that matrix as a reminder that we should only focus our full attention on urgent AND important matters and delegate or get rid of  all non-urgent & non-important ones. This has been a life changer as this matrix is applicable both in your work and personal areas of your life.


Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle

Using Time Effectively, Not Just Efficiently


You only have a few days to put it together, your workload is already high, and you have many other urgent tasks on your To-Do List. Because of this, you’re anxious, you can’t concentrate, and everything seems to distract you.



What Are “Urgent” and “Important” Activities?




When we know which activities are important and which are urgent, we can overcome the natural tendency to focus on unimportant urgent activities, so that we can clear enough time to do what’s essential for our success. This is the way we move from “firefighting” into a position where we can grow our businesses and our careers.

How to Use Eisenhower’s Principle



Figure 1 – Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle

Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle

Then use the strategies described below to schedule your activities.

1. Important and Urgent





2. Important but not Urgent



3. Not Important but Urgent


A common source of such activities is other people. Sometimes it’s appropriate to say “no” to people politely, or to encourage them to solve the problem themselves. (Our article “‘Yes’ to the Person, ‘No’ to the Task” will help here.)


4. Not Important and not Urgent

These activities are just a distraction – avoid them if possible.



Key Points




  • Important and urgent.
  • Important but not urgent.
  • Not important but urgent.
  • Not important and not urgent.

Then schedule tasks and activities based on their importance and urgency.

Source :


10 ways to have a better conversation

I love this Ted Talk. First Celeste Headlee is plain hilarious in it. Second she gives easy tips to become a better conversationalist. A must-see for those who struggle to engage in small talk or meaningful conversations during networking events or even with friends. ‘Everybody is an expert in something’ and to get the most out of any conversation, let’s assume we have something to learn. That seems basic but when we think about it, oftentimes in a conversation, we tend to do the talking and showcase our expertise or knowledge.

Well, by assuming we have something to learn, it puts us in the position of listener. It might be the secret after all of a great conversation, that is being able to stay in the back seat and truly listen even if what you are hearing is not in line with your beliefs, your political opinions, what you have always thought to be the truth.

That’s what is so enriching about communication, that moment you set aside your own thoughts, beliefs, views to just listen and maybe, challenge your way of thinking. It leaves the room to a more complete understanding of an issue or situation and it makes you see things from all perspectives not just yours. Isn’t it what life is all about, keep learning ?

Let’s see every conversation as a fantastic opportunity to know more. That way we also happen to become a more tolerant person along the way.

Does the perfect employee really exist?

As I am in the process of recruiting more staff at my company, I have to sit down and think about the charasteristics of the ideal employee. Is there such a thing as a perfect employee? In the negative, what makes at least an awesome employee? I agree with Ryan Harwood who published an insightful article in Fortune magazine on the topic.

Do not recruit only based on skills. So true. Skills will at some point and faster than ever become outdated. You need someone who will be capable of learning new ones. Better, someone who will be willing to update his skill-set. A lot of candidates say how adaptable they are during job interviews but few truly embrace change once in the job. So it is clearly something I will be assessing and looking for in my next hire.

great employee

March 7, 2015 by Ryan Harwood

Not quite, so try looking for this instead.


Don’t hire based on skills alone.

In the early days of PureWow, I always thought you needed to find the perfect employee on paper. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I quickly learned that you can often teach employees new skills, but you can’t teach them how to fit the company culture. If an employee doesn’t fit the mold initially, they most likely never will. This could force them to quit, or worse, frustrate other employees.

It didn’t take us long to realize how much more fun (and productive) work is when people enjoy their work environment. We encourage our team to constantly communicate at PureWow: ask questions if you don’t understand something, cc or bcc your manager for visibility on emails, and let your colleagues know what you’re working on. Those who don’t like to share and prefer to work in silos won’t do well at our company. However, this wasn’t always the case, it took time for us to clearly define the company culture we wanted to create.

Now, I’m not saying you don’t need to look for skills — of course you do. But hiring smart people that also happen to fit your company culture is what you should strive for. EQ is more important than IQ. In every interview we conduct at PureWow — from tech to edit, and even sales — we ask our employees to consider some of the following questions before hiring anyone: do I want to regularly communicate with this individual? do they have a great work ethic? how do they react during stressful situations?

Brilliant ideas don’t make companies successful; the people who execute those ideas do. That’s why hiring is the single most important thing any company can do and it should be done with great care. It’s the CEO’s job to be the conductor of the orchestra; find the missing puzzle pieces. Seek out employees who complement the skills of those already employed – every company needs a devil’s advocate, right? And most of all, look for candidates who believe in your company’s vision and are more interested in growing the business than achieving individual success.

Source :

The 6 Top Languages Global-Minded CEOs Should Know


Learning a new language from scratch teaches you 3 amazing things.




The 6 Top Languages Global-Minded CEOs Should Know





Here, the languages global-minded CEOs should be learning.

Related: The 3 Essentials of Expanding Into Other Countries
1. Spanish


2. Portuguese

3. Chinese


4. Russian

5. Arabic

6. German



Source :

Why I read a book a day (and why you should too): the law of 33% | Tai Lopez

Love this Ted Talk. Though it might be hard to actually read a book a day, I couldn’t agree more on the importance of reading. Lucky I am an avid reader.Reading is the ultimate education you can get almost for free. Books are treasures. The more you read the more you realise you know little. Reading challenges how you think and what you think. It fosters your imagination, creativity…essential tools to thrive in business. As Tai Lopez rightly put it, books allow you to have a conversation with the most inspirational leaders of all times, right here, right now. Happy reading !

iRobot’s Ava 500 Will Attend Your Meetings For You

Ava 500 the workforce of the future?

ava 500





“The biggest elements in favor of telepresence robots are the freedom of movement, spontaneity and physical presence,” says Youssef Saleh, senior vice president and general manager of iRobot’s Remote Presence business unit. “Instead of being a video on the wall or a voice on the phone, you get a real presence in the room.”




No need to change out of those pajamas when done.

Source :

Mar 17, 2014 1:54 pm ET

100 Great Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask

The power of questions. Questions lead us to think and reflect on the WHY behind it all. Questions encourage us to rethink the purpose of our business that drives us and inspires us to do more, to do better, to do differently.



There’s no Superman versus Iron Man face-off between questions and answers over which is the better tool for innovation. But if there were, questions would be winning. Questions ignite imaginations, avert catastrophes, and reveal unexpected paths to brighter destinations. Jim Collins, Marshall Goldsmith, and other thinkers have compiled their own stocks of questions, which they urge leaders to pose to themselves and their teams. The right questions don’t allow people to remain passive. They require reflection, followed by action.

Warren Berger, author of A More Beautiful Question, praises inquiry’s ability to trigger divergent thinking, in which the mind seeks multiple, sometimes non-obvious paths to a solution. Asking good questions and doing so often “opens people to new ideas and possibilities,” says Berger.

To compile this list of provocative questions for business owners, we reached out to entrepreneurs and management thinkers, scanned blogs, and revisited our favorite business books. (Though we tried to identify the origin of each question, some had competing claims of authorship. In those cases, we made our best call.) Have you got a great question that you use at your company? We welcome you to add your own to the list via the comment box below the story. Rigid mindsets are dangerous things. We hope the following will keep your mind supple.

  1. How can we become the company that would put us out of business? –Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group 
  2. Are we  relevant? Will we be relevant five years from now? Ten? –Debra Kaye, innovation consultant and author
  3. If energy were free, what would we do differently? –Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
  4. What is it like to work for me? –Robert Sutton, author and management professor at Stanford
  5. If we weren’t already in this business, would we enter it today? And if not, what are we going to do about it? –Peter Drucker, management expert and author 
    The late Drucker posed a variation on this question to Jack Welch in the 1980s. It inspired General Electric’s “fix, sell, or close” strategy for exiting or restructuring unprofitable businesses.
  6. What trophy do we want on our mantle? – Marcy Massura, a digital marketer and brand strategist at MSL Group 
  7. Do we have bad profits? –Jonathan L. Byrnes, author and senior lecturer at MIT 
  8. What counts that we are not counting? –Chip Conley, founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and head of global hospitality for Airbnb 
  9.  In the past few months, what is the smallest change we have made that has had the biggest positive result? What was it about that small change that produced the large return? –Robert Cialdini, author and professor emeritus of marketing and psychology at Arizona State University
  10. Are we paying enough attention to the partners our company depends on to succeed? –Ron Adner, author and professor at Tuck School of Business 
    Adner explains, “Even companies that execute well themselves are vulnerable to the missteps of suppliers, distributors, and others.”
  11. What prevents me from making the changes I know will make me a more effective leader? –Marshall Goldsmith, leadership coach and author
  12. What are the implications of this decision 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years from now? –Suzy Welch, author
  13. Do I make eye contact 100 percent of the time? –Tom Peters, author and management expert
  14. What is the smallest subset of the problem we can usefully solve? –Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator
  15. Are we changing as fast as the world around us? –Gary Hamel, author and management consultant
  16. If no one would ever find out about my accomplishments, how would I lead differently? –Adam Grant, author and professor at Wharton
  17. Which customers can’t participate  in our market  because they lack skills, wealth, or convenient access to existing solutions? –Clayton Christensen, author, Harvard Business School professor, and co-founder of Innosight
  18. Who uses our product in ways we never expected? –Kevin P. Coyne and Shawn T. Coyne, authors and strategy consultants
  19. How likely is it that a customer would recommend our company to a friend or colleague? –Andrew Taylor, executive chairman of Enterprise Holdings 
    “Taylor’s use of this question at Enterprise Rent-A-Car inspired Fred Reichheld to create the Net Promoter Score, a widely used metric for customer loyalty.
  20. Is this an issue for analysis or intuition? –Tom Davenport, author and professor at Babson College
    Davenport explains, “If it’s a decision that’s important, recurring, and amenable to improvement, you should invest in gathering data, doing analysis, and examining failure factors. If it’s a decision you will only make once, or if for some reason you can’t get data or improve the decision-making process, you might as well go with your experience and intuition.”
  21. Who, on the executive team or the board, has spoken to a customer recently? –James Champy, author and management expert
  22. Did my employees make progress today? –Teresa Amabile, author and Harvard Business School professor 
  23. What one word do we want to own in the minds of our customers, employees, and partners? –Matthew May, author and innovation expert 
    May explains, “This deceptively simple question creates utter clarity inside and outside a company. It is incredibly difficult for most people to answer and difficult to get consensus on–even at the highest levels. Apple = different. Toyota = quality. Google = search. It’s taken me three years to get one of my clients,, to find and agree on their word: trust.”
  24. What should we stop doing? –Peter Drucker, management expert and author
  25. What are the gaps in my knowledge and experience? –Charles Handy, author and management expert
  26. What am I trying to prove to myself, and how might it be hijacking my life and business success? –Bob Rosen, executive coach and author
  27. If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would he do? –Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel 
    In 1985, with the company’s memory-chip business under siege, CEO Grove famously posed this hypothetical to Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, leading them to ditch memory for microprocessors.
  28. If I had to leave my organization for a year and the only communication I could have with employees was a single paragraph, what would I write? –Pat Lencioni, author and founder of The Table Group 
  29. Who have we, as a company, historically been when we’ve been at our best? –Keith Yamashita, author and founder of SYPartners
  30. What do we stand for–and what are we against? –Scott Goodson, co-founder of StrawberryFrog
  32. Do we underestimate the customer’s journey? –Matt Dixon, author and executive director of research at CEB 
    Dixon explains, “Often, companies don’t understand the entirety of the customer’s experience and how many channels may have already failed them. They don’t understand that the customer goes to the website first, pokes around but can’t find the answer to their question, and then tries to start up a chat with an agent, only to get frustrated by the delayed response. Only then do they go to the Contact Us tab and call. From the company’s perspective, the call is square one. The customer sees it as, you’ve already wasted 15 minutes of my time.”
  33. Among our stronger employees, how many see themselves at the company in three years? How many would leave for a 10 percent raise from another company? –Jonathan Rosenberg, adviser to Google management
  34. What did we miss in the interview for the worst hire we ever made? –Alberto Perlman, CEO of Zumba Fitness
  35. Do we have the right people on the bus? –Jim Collins, author and management consultant  
  36. What would have to be true for the option on the table to be the best possible choice? –Roger Martin, professor, Rotman Business School 
    Martin uses this question when members of a group bring diverse opinions to a decision. It allows people to step back from their strongly held beliefs and contemplate a range of circumstances that might–or might not–support each option.
  37. Am I failing differently each time? –David Kelley, founder, IDEO
  39. Do we aggressively reward and promote the people who have the biggest impact on creating excellent products? –Jonathan Rosenberg
  40. What is our Big Hairy Audacious Goal? –Jim Collins
  41.  Is our strategy driving our strategy? Or is the way in which we allocate resources driving our strategy? –Mark Johnson, co-founder, Innosight 
    Johnson explains, “You might think you have a strategic plan, but your people may be doing things on a day-to-day basis that are undermining it. It’s essential that people believe in the strategy so they can make the daily decisions that support it.”
  42. How is the way you as the leader think and process information affecting your organizational culture?  –Ari Weinzweig, co-founder Zingerman’s Community of Businesses 
    Weinzweig explains, “Describe the culture you’d love to have in your organization. Then check the desired characteristics of the culture against the way you think and process information. Are they congruent?  Do you want collaboration but think in isolation?  Do you want a flat organization but think hierarchically?
  43. Why don’t our customers like us? –James Champy
  44. How can we become more high-tech but still be high touch? –James Champy
  45. What do we need to start doing? –Jack Bergstrand, CEO, Brand Velocity
  46. Whom among your colleagues do you trust, and for what? –Charles Handy 
    Handy tells this story: “One CEO had a problem with his best subordinate, who was very good at his job. But he was also personally ambitious, so the CEO could not trust him to be totally loyal. The dilemma was whether to keep him because of his abilities or lose him because he couldn’t be sure of him.  The answer was for the CEO to either assign the subordinate jobs where his loyalty wasn’t relevant or to confront him with his feelings. After some pushing from me. the CEO did the latter, and it cleared the air.”
  47.  Are you satisfied with your current role?  If not, what is missing from it? –Charles Handy
  48. Do you keep 50% of your time unscheduled? –Dov Frohman, engineer and executive, author 
    The 50% stat may be somewhat arbitrary. But Frohman’s point, laid out in his book “Leadership the Hard Way,” is that leaders should make sure they maintain sufficient “slop” in their schedules to allow space for reflection and the assimilation of lessons learned from experience.
  49. What would I recommend my friend do if he were facing this dilemma? –Chip and Dan Heath
    Lencioni explains, “In this case “crime” is a metaphor.  This question speaks to values. A particularly idealistic organization may be okay with hiring someone that was previously reprimanded for standing up for his beliefs or blowing the whistle on something. A particularly competitive organization may be okay hiring someone who in prior positions was reprimanded for being overly arrogant or difficult to work with.”
  51. If our customer were my grandmother, would I tell her to buy what we’re selling? –Dan Pink, author
  52. If our company went out of business tomorrow, would anyone who doesn’t get a paycheck here care? –Dan Pink
  53. What is something you believe that nearly no one agrees with you on? –Peter Thiel, partner, Founders Fund
  54. Do you have an implicit bias for capital investments over people investments? –Tom Peters 
    Peters explains: “Capital enhancements are important. They’re also cool. You can get your picture taken next to a new robot. People investments are invisible and hard to measure. The tendency is to favor the hard stuff over the soft stuff. But the soft stuff is invariably more related to long-term strategic success than the hard stuff.”
  55. Do we have enough freaky customers in our portfolio pushing us to the limit day in and day out? –Tom Peters
  56. Who are you going to put out of business, and why? –Brad Feld, managing director, Foundry Group
  57. What happens at this company when people fail? –Bob Sutton and Jeff Pfeffer, Stanford professors
  58. How will you motivate the dishwashers? –Bill Keena, independent casino consultant 
    Job interview questions comprise a genre unto themselves, so we chose not to include them in this article. With one exception. Keena says the only correct answer to this question, posed to manager candidates in a hotel chain, is “If they are overloaded I would roll up my sleeves and start washing right alongside them.” That speaks to the candidate’s ability to create employee engagement. Turned inward, however, the question reveals even more about culture. Ask yourself this: Are we the kind of company that cares whether our dishwashers are motivated?
  59. Do your employees have the opportunity to do what they do best everyday? –Marcus Buckingham, author
  60. Where is our petri dish? –Tim Ogilvie, CEO. Peer Insight
  61. What Microsoft is this the Altair Basic of? –Paul Graham
  62. Do we say “no” to customers for no reason? –Matt Dixon
  64.  Do you see more potential in people than they do in themselves? –Adam Grant
  65. Are you taking your company in the direction of better and revenue or cheaper and cost? –Michael Raynor, director, Deloitte Services LP
  66. Would you rather sell to knowledgeable and informed customers or to uninformed customers? –Don Peppers, founding partner, Peppers and Rogers Group 
    Partly it’s a matter of values: uninformed customers can be easy targets who swallow your pitch without pushing back. Selling to knowledgeable customers, by contrast, “is a mark of a trustable firm–one that is working to advance its customers’ best interests,” says Peppers. And there’s another benefit: “Your most valuable customer references are not the ones who spend the most, but the ones who have the most expertise and authority. That gives them credibility with their peers.”
  67. What are we challenging, in the sense that Mac challenged the PC or Dove tackled the Beauty Myth? –Mark Barden and Adam Morgan, founders, eatbigfish 
    Barden and Morgan explain that for companies challenging market leaders with greater resources, competing on the status quo is death. Instead they must assault the dynamics of a category (the dominance of PC) or a cultural meme (what society defines as “beautiful” in women).
  68. In what way can we redefine the criteria of choice in our category in our favor, as Method introduced style and design to cleaning and Virgin America returned glamor to flying? –Mark Barden and Adam Morgan
    Cialdini explains: “Of course, the preferred way to increase the perception of a company as ethical is to foster ethical practice within the organization. However, sometimes a company can be ethical without a corresponding perception in the marketplace that this is indeed the case. Therefore, companies should strive not only to enhance and reinforce an ethical culture but also to arrange for a warranted perception of that ethicality to be part of their brand.”
  70. To whom do you add value? –Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, co-founders, The RBL Group
  71. Why should people listen to you? –Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood
  72. How would our PR, marketing, and social media change if we did not use outside agencies? –Guy Kawasaki, founder, Garage Technology Ventures and Alltop 
  73. What was the last experiment we ran? –Scott Berkun, author
  74. Are your clients Pepsi or Coke drinkers?” –Marcy Massura 
    Massura explains: “This is a symbolic question that gets at how deeply you have researched your target clients. Business leaders can find out more about their customers than ever before thanks to the ability to collect data on a grand scale. Such detailed information allows the company to interact with targets in new ways and to assess current product development and marketing roadmaps.”
  75. What is your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)? –Roger Fisher and William Ury, negotiation experts
  76. What’s the best design framework for an organization in a post Industrial-Age if the top-down, command and control model is no longer relevant? –Traci Fenton, CEO, Worldblu
  77. Who are four people whose careers I’ve enhanced? –Alex Gorsky, CEO, Johnson & Johnson
  78. Where can we break convention? –Shane Snow, co-founder, Contently
  79. Whose voice (department, ethnic group, women, older workers, etc) might you have missed hearing from in your company, and how might you amplify this voice to create positive momentum for your business? –Jane Hyun and Audrey Lee, partners, Hyun & Associates
  81. Do you, as a leader, bounce back quickly from setbacks? –Bob Rosen
  82. Who do we think the world wants us to be? –Geoffrey Moore, organizational theorist and management consultant
  83. How will we build a 100-year startup? –Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote
  84. What successful thing are we doing today that may be blinding us to new growth opportunities? –Scott D. Anthony, managing partner, Innosight
  86. What stupid rule would we most like to kill? –Lisa Bodell, CEO, FutureThink
  87. What potential megatrends could make our business model obsolete? –Michael A. Cusumano, professor, MIT
  88. What information is critical to our organization that our executives are ignoring? –Max Bazerman, professor, Harvard Business School
  89. What have we done to protect our business from competitive encroachment? –Tom Stemberg, managing general partner, Highland Venture Capital
  92. Do the decisions we make today help people and the planet tomorrow? –Kevin Cleary, president, Clif Bar
  93. What is your theory of human motivation, and how does your compensation plan fit with that view? –Dan Ariely, professor, Duke University
  94. How do you encourage people to take control and responsibility? –Dan Ariely
  95. Who do we want out customers to become? –Michael Schrage, professor, MIT
  96. How do I stay inspired? –Paul Bennett, chief creative officer, IDEO
  97. Do I know what I’m doing? And who do I call if I don’t? –Erin Pooley, business journalist
  98. Do they use it? –Howard Tullman, CEO, 1871
  99. What is our question? –Dev Patnaik, CEO, Jump Associates
  100. How is business? Why? –Thomas A. Stewart, executive director, National Center for the Middle Market