After 40 Years in the Corporate Trenches, Organizational Expert Offers "Top 5" List of Most Important Lessons Learned

GRAFTON, Wis. - April 11, 2023 - PRLog -- After four decades in the corporate trenches, organizational guru and author Jim Bohn, Ph.D., has seen it all – yet can still narrow down the top five lessons he's learned in helping companies align their operations and employees for maximum productivity.

Why? Because they apply to every for-profit and non-profit organization, regardless of size or market segment.

"There are certain things that come up within organizations, again and again, through the decades," Bohn explained. "These things simply don't change. If leaders are aware of them, though, they can have a major impact on the success of their organizations."

Bohn again defuses the innate land mines of organizational activity with the publication of his fifth and final business book, "People Development: The Best Part of Leading a Team." His new treatise details the practices of "people development," an employee engagement strategy built around not just enhancing workers' skills and satisfaction, but guiding leaders to understand why they are doing so.

The last point is critical, he writes, because "Ultimately, people development requires an attitude of delight in the success of others." The book, released in early March, is already in Amazon's top 40 best-sellers in the "Human Resources & Personnel" category.

A leader learns a lot during 4+ decades working to make organizations better. Bohn identifies his "Top Five" lessons:

• People Don't Change: Your product, service or offering might be different, but your people challenges are the same. Having worked across non-profits, banking, education, manufacturing, service and retail, he's observed the same patterns over and over.
• Change Requires Conscious Direction: Organizations need an air traffic controller. Excessive change projects create organizational attention deficit disorder.
• Sweat the Details: The artificial distinction between manager and leader is silly. Great leaders cast vision. They know the details, too.
• Wear Credibility: Everyone has an invisible cloak of credibility that precedes them wherever they go. Solving problems and developing people are the building blocks of credibility.
• Follow Up or Fail: Without follow-up, there is no success. All the cliches, memes and social media motivational posts come down to effort. Or, as he heard a leader once say, "All vision eventually degenerates into work."

Bohn's broad, lengthy career provides plenty of material from which to draw insights. He worked more than three decades in a Fortune 100 company, climbing the ranks, leading change management initiatives, and transforming teams from underachieving to unbeatable.

He launched a tremendously-successful consulting practice a decade ago. Bohn counsels clients on change management and organizational transformation, two challenges every organization struggles with. He has taught Organizational Change and Leadership as an adjunct professor at three Milwaukee-area colleges.

Bohn holds a Ph.D. in organizational leadership from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He continues working with the academic community, with no plans to slow his research.

Bohn has authored five books on leadership and hands-on organizational management. Their compelling content is based on his own findings, plus years of observing and interacting with many organizations in the Fortune 500. He never forgets how he got here, either.

"I came from a blue-collar background of parents that didn't get through high school, and worked my way through a Ph.D. at night school while increasing my responsibilities in my job," Bohn said. "I balanced family and work during that time through self-discipline and prioritization. It can be done, but it takes real focus and a sacrifice of 'play' time."

"People Development: The Best Part of Leading a Team" is available at Amazon. Keep up to date with Bohn on Twitter at @DrJimBohn.