Category Archives: Perform / Execution

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

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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

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Evolution and Change in Business

Looking at our businesses within the context of evolution can give us actionable insights to help move our businesses forward.  Despite what we may have read or heard; evolution is not about a dog-eat-dog world where only the strongest individuals … Continue reading

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Let’s Be Scientific

As leaders, we are required to constantly evaluate evidence and make decisions.  In doing so, we often succumb to “winging it” and making decisions on the fly, trusting our gut.  While this might work for some decisions, it does not … Continue reading

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Field Centric

As leaders, we can get wrapped up in so many different activities and meetings – meeting with the finance, human resources or marketing department; talking to investors, banks and insurance companies; strategic planning; looking at acquisition candidates or joint venture … Continue reading

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Patience

The regular readers of my blog are aware of my focus on Decisiveness and Getting Things Done. But, as in all things in leadership, balance is required.  Good leaders balance this decisiveness with a healthy dose of patience.  There are … Continue reading

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Three Keys to Teamwork

The fundamental determinant of success on most projects and at most companies is teamwork.  Volumes have been written about how to foster teamwork.  My small contribution is to suggest that each of us, when part of a team, keep three … Continue reading

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Seek Out the ‘Useful Answer’

“When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.”  Dalai Lama In my company, as in many others, we have a formal system to review work that we have done.  Whether called post-project reviews, re-caps, or post-mortems, these reviews give the people … Continue reading

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The First Two Steps in Process Improvement

Most process improvement initiatives fail miserably.  First, they do not improve the processes they were supposed to improve.  Second, they waste managerial and employee time, effort and attention.  Or, third, the process may be improved; but this improvement does not … Continue reading

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Top Three Things to Do Today to Be a Better Leader

To build a better business, we need to be better leaders.  This does not mean we need to rush out and get more training or education or bring in a consultant (absolutely not!!).  Instead, we need to focus on the … Continue reading

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Selling When We are Not in Sales

No matter what our title is, we are all salespeople.  Whenever we are trying to… persuade others lobby for our point of view satisfy a disgruntled customer ask for a raise… we are selling. Below I offer nine suggestions (from … Continue reading

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A Time For Everything

“We all have times when we think more effectively, and times when we should not be thinking at all.”  Daniel Cohen To be effective as leaders, we must do our good work in its proper time.  We need to be … Continue reading

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A Happy Company

The American Psychologist and Author, Martin Seligman, is a strong promoter of positive psychology and well-being.  His five-part recommendation for increased happiness and life satisfaction consists of: Positive Emotion Engagement Relationships Meaning Achievement This prescription (remembered with the acronym ‘PERMA’) … Continue reading

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Careful: A User’s Guide to Our Injury-Prone Minds

Careful: A User’s Guide to Our Injury-Prone Minds, written by Steve Casner, is an excellent discussion of safety in our lives, both at home and at work.  It is a straightforward read, and I highly recommend it.  Below I share … Continue reading

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Three Cheers for Foresight

To be successful, leaders need to develop and hone their business foresight.  Used effectively, foresight focuses our attention on the time and space between the immediate, day to day tactical execution and the long-term strategic vision and planning. Foresight in … Continue reading

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Avoid Fair Fights (But Fight Fair)

Whether we are competing in our core business, starting a new business venture, or looking to win a new, large job or project, we need to focus our energies on areas where we have a competitive advantage. We need to … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

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