Posts Tagged ‘clarity’
The Discipline To Reaching Big Dreams
A friend of mine worked for a premium group of family-owned restaurants. When we met he would often share his dream of opening his own restaurant. Over time his thoughts became more concrete, developing a theme, dishes for a menu. He couldn’t wait to get out on his own. Then one day he called. “I did it!” My…
Read MoreMentor, Coach, Advisor or Consigliere?
There is much talk these days about finding assistance in identifying and achieving goals, whether organizationally or personal (and if you are the leader they are inseparable). Here are my thoughts on the what and why for leaders. A mentor is someone who has already achieved something you want to emulate or replicate yourself. You…
Read More8 Tips For Productive Offsites
Many organizations have now entered the fourth quarter, the home stretch. But it is also time to begin hard planning for 2017 – and that makes it offsite season. Here are a few tips to help your meetings be most productive. Have the offsite “offsite.” This seems obvious, but it is worth pointing out that…
Read More8 Critical Questions for Succession Planning
Here are 8 key questions you must have the answers to in order to be successful in a smooth succession of role, or responsibility. Are you trying to hire a better you? Have you written your new job description? Have you defined the success of your new leader as an outcome, or a goal?…
Read MoreUpping CEO Delegation
Are you a good delegator? Delegation is among the most important things in a leader’s team toolkit. Delegation grows leaders and builds teams. Leaders delegate to their teams in three broad progressive levels – tasks, responsibilities, and outcomes. Tasks are a specific goal. Like “generate $2 million in sales”. Or “deliver product Y by the…
Read MoreStacked Deck (or why democracy is not a good way to make executive decisions)
The company had one of those ideas that could turn an industry on its ear. They approved the funding to rush the product to market by the end of the year. Then an offer came in no one expected. A large prospect was willing to commit to be the initial buyer of the product… if…
Read MorePassive Aggressive Language: 5 Ways to Say (or Hear) “No”
Will you guarantee its success? (as though you could guarantee success in anything) Will you take personal responsibility for its success? (as though you were not personally responsible for anything else you do) Will you give me daily updates on its progress? (so frequent and detailed you won’t have time to get anything…
Read MoreAn Exercise in Collaboration
Here is an exercise I use to measure the degree of collaboration that exists within a leadership team when I join a new company. I call an executive planning session. I ask each executive to identify the top three things they think we need to work on in the coming year, ( before the meeting).…
Read MoreAn Exercise in Clarity
There is an exercise I use to gauge to an organization’s clarity of purpose, and how well the executive team is aligned around this purpose when I facilitate strategy-planning meetings. I hand each executive a 3×5 card and ask him or her to write down three things. If the organization were measured by a single…
Read MoreI’m Sorry
Many, many years ago, I was a young IT operations manager overseeing a 24/7 shop for a novelty company. Just before I started working there the company had secured the exclusive rights in North American for a little know product called Smurfs. As you may know, Smurfs became a phenomenon. Little blue trolls with white…
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