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Category Archives: Perform / Execution
Managing a Diverse Workforce
Diversity in the workforce can be a polarizing topic. But having a diverse workforce is more common and more essential than it would have been 15 – 20 years ago: Many companies have made great strides in having women and … Continue reading
Let’s Improve Our Forecasting and Policymaking
In reading and studying history, I never cease to be amazed at how badly political, economic, business, academic, and media policymakers and thinktanks forecast the future. Their predictions for a strategy or the effects of a law or policy are … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Communication, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Forecasting, Policymaking, Predictions
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Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen
Inevitably, there will be times when there are too many managers and executives involved in a decision. This often happens for significant decisions that cross department or business unit lines. As leaders, we need to ensure that the decision-making process … Continue reading
Be the Right Kind of Lazy
Laziness gets a bad rap and deservedly so. Of course, we, ourselves, are never lazy. No… Never… But we know other people who are lazy. They procrastinate. They only do the minimum work necessary to stay employed (quiet quitters). Or … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution, Personal Success
Tagged Getting Things Done, Laziness
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Learn Better
When learning new ideas or concepts, most of us learn as we did in high school and college. We listen to a lecture or podcast, read a book or textbook, highlight the key ideas, and then re-read our highlights as … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution, Personal Success
Tagged Learning, Training
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The When of Negotiation
In negotiation, there is always a bargaining range within which a deal can be struck – a zone of potential agreement. This bargaining range runs from the Seller Breakpoint (the absolute least that the seller will sell their product or … Continue reading
Don’t Be a Comfort Junkie
I just finished reading an excellent book, The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self. As written by Michael Easter, the comfort crisis results from each of us not doing anything uncomfortable: not exercising, never going … Continue reading
Manage the Data Overload
We are awash in data – round the clock news, social media, E-Mails, texts… The challenge for the business leader remains the same: “The important thing is detecting whispers of useful information in a howling hurricane of noise.” The Economist … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution, Personal Success
Tagged Data Management, Data Overload
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Keep Eyes on the Business
100 years ago, Henry Ford said: “The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all but goes on making his own business better all the time.” To be successful leaders, we need to be that … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Do the Right Thing, Focus
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6 Simple Expressions of a Good Leader
To be a good leader, we need to master and put into practice the basics. The basics of good leadership start and end with how we communicate and interact with our teams and our customers. I offer my list of … Continue reading
What’s Our Zero to Sixty?
Late one afternoon, a major plumbing leak sprang up in a building we were helping to build. Our field team sprang into immediate action, mobilized a large crew of workers, worked overtime, and repaired the damage caused by the water … Continue reading
Complexity and Problem Solving
I recently listened to a course titled Understanding Complexity. A key takeaway from the course is that the tools we use for regular problem solving do not fully work with complex problems. In regular problem solving, we determine the root … Continue reading
Creeping Complexity
Anthropologist Joseph Tainter writes, “Complexity creeps up on you.” Today, complexity has been creeping up and overwhelming us. Within our companies and in our personal lives, we need to fight hard against this complexity to enable us to realize our … Continue reading
Upward Communication Makes Us All Better
In a previous blog, Communicate Upward, I discussed the need for upward communication and how to communicate upward. In this blog, I discuss upward communication and how it improves our employees’ understanding and capabilities. Upward Communication Good upward communication needs … Continue reading
Reject Equality… Embrace Fairness
In a previous blog, I wrote about Ideological Necrophilia, the continued love of ideas that have been tried repeatedly and proved (again and again) not to work. One failed idea that I wrote about is that we need to treat … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Equality, Ethical Leadership, Fairness
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Team Building
Winning teamwork is fundamental to the success of any organization. Winning teamwork requires trust, openness, communication, and respect among the members of the team. The purpose of a team building event is to deepen the bonds within the team and … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Team Building, Teamwork, Winning Teamwork
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The Team is More Important than the Individual
At the height of the Great Recession, the CEO was focusing the company on production efficiencies to reduce costs. One regional president, by contrast, was driving forward to grow sales. This president’s region outperformed all the other regions. But the … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Leadership, Teamwork, Winning Teamwork
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Ideological Necrophilia
“Ideological necrophilia – a love of ideas that have been tried and proved not to work.” Moises Naim (Venezuelan writer and journalist) In the political world, we see ideological necrophilia in a continued love of Marxism and communism by the … Continue reading
6 Simple Expressions of a Good Leader
To be a good leader, we need to master and put into practice the basics. The basics of good leadership start and end with how we communicate and interact with our teams and our customers. I offer my list of … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Leadership Success, Simple Expressions
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Rough Seas Ahead?
Economists, politicians, and many business leaders are predicting a recession in 2023 as the Federal Reserve continues to tighten to lower inflation and inflationary expectations. Alas, I have no insight on whether an economic downturn will come to pass. I … Continue reading
David M. Shedd - Move Your Company Forward 