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Author Archives: David Shedd
The Necessity of a Good Cadence
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, cadence is defined as “the beat, time, or measure of rhythmical motion or action.” In the business context, cadence is used to describe regularly scheduled activities, specifically regularly scheduled meetings, follow-ups, visits or other actions. … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Accountability, Follow-up, Leadership, Project Management
Use the ‘Base Rate’ for Better Decisions
The IT project took twice as long as planned. The construction project to expand the plant went over budget. Why does this always happen? Too many decisions are made with too much self-confidence and too much optimism. As a result, … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Personal Success
Tagged Base Rate, Decision Making, Richard Thaler
Flexibility
“Predictions are difficult – especially about the future.” This quote from Yogi Berra sums up the challenges we all face in today’s dynamic and fast-changing world. None of us has a crystal ball that allows us to predict the future … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Growth and Strategy, Perform / Execution
Tagged Adaptability, Flexibility, Marketing, Sales Success
10 Fundamentals of Continuous Improvement
When continuous improvement is a fundamental part of our company culture, our business gets better every day and will soon out-run and out-perform the competition. Over 100 years ago, Henry Ford wrote: The competitor to be feared is the one … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Continuous Improvement
Crisis Leadership
As I write this blog, we are in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Each day brings changes to how and where we can conduct business; we have little visibility into what the next month, three months, or six months … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Crisis, Leadership, Turnaround, Uncertainty
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To Improve Our Meetings, We Need to Do Our Homework
The consultant, Stan Sipes, once commented: “The most common weakness I see in organizations is the lack of work that is done in a meeting.” Today, more than ever, so little work is done in meetings because no one has … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution
Tagged Communication, Effectiveness, Homework, Meetings
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Be Opportunistic
“There are smart decisions and wise decisions. And one form of wisdom is the ability to judge when to let luck disrupt our plans. Not all time in life is equal. The question is, when the unequal moment comes, do … Continue reading
11 Keys to Better Decision-Making
Successful leaders make good decisions… consistently. Good decision-making is dependent on a number of factors: understanding, experience, intelligence, foresight, and just plain luck. There is no guide that will tell you how to make the perfect decision. But, there are … Continue reading
Three Ways to Develop Strategic Thinking Skills
Strategic thinking skills differentiate middle-level managers from effective upper level leaders. With excellent strategic thinking skills, the leader is able to make effective decisions that benefit their companies in both the short and long term. Developing strategic thinking skills requires … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Growth and Strategy, Perform / Execution
Tagged Business Strategy, Strategic Vision, Strategy, Vision
Survival of the Fittest and Leadership Flexibility
Hawaiians and other Polynesians are the descendants of peoples who traveled by boat from East Asia to settle their islands. Those most likely to survive the long and arduous journey were those with “thrifty genes”. They were those ancestors who … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Focus, Innovation, Learning, Management, Productivity, Vision
A Good Leader is a Good Follower
Even as leaders, we all have bosses. Perhaps, it is a Vice-President. Perhaps, it is the CEO. Perhaps, it is the Board of Directors. To move our companies forward, we need to be good (but not mindless) followers to our … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Alignment, Follow, Followership, Leadership
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Four Ways To Do Training Right
In corporate America, approximately $100 billion is spent each year on training. Yet, many studies show that training is only 10% – 15% effective. As Harvard Business School Professor Michael Beer writes, this is… the great training robbery Yet, training … Continue reading
Communicate in One Page
Idea Summary To run our businesses more effectively, most documents and reports in our businesses (including summaries, plans, reviews, and analysis) should be kept to one page. Perspective Businesses are awash in information, specifically reports, analysis, weekly updates or … Continue reading
5 Key Interpersonal Skills for Leaders
“Abraham Lincoln said that people think that the real test of a person’s character is how they deal with adversity. A much better measure of a person’s character is to give them power. I’ve been more often disappointed with how … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Communication, Interpersonal Relations, Winning Teamwork
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Don’t Believe the Hype
“The world is changing faster than ever before.” “We need to adapt to the change or we will get run over by it.” “The paradigm has shifted and the world will never be the same.” “Robotics and AI (Artificial Intelligence) will … Continue reading
Experiment… A Little
To move our companies forward, we need to experiment. We need to try out new products, new sales/ marketing strategies, new processes, and new leadership styles. We cannot be certain if all of these will work. But, to not experiment … Continue reading
Decisiveness
“In a minute, there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.” This line from the 1915 T.S. Elliot poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, is a lovely bit of poetry. It is also a … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Consistent Execution, Decision Making, Decisiveness, Focus, Productivity, Vision
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Avoiding Micromanagement
Guilty as charged!! I confess that I do, at times, micromanage. However, soon after slipping into micromanagement, I become aware (yet again) that micromanagement is truly just mis-management. It would have been far better for me to avoid the trap … Continue reading
Checklists
Several years ago, a medical surgeon, Atul Gawande, wrote a best-selling book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, that discusses the advantages of using checklists in all types of activities from surgery to disaster recovery to business. As … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution, Sales and Marketing
Tagged Communication, Focus, Learning, Productivity, Project Management, Training
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