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Category Archives: Perform / Execution
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
Posted in Business Acumen, Growth and Strategy, Perform / Execution
Tagged Business Success, Competition, Competitive Advantage, Straetgy
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
1 Comment
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
2 Comments
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
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
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
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
1 Comment
Leading When Overwhelmed
It happens to all of us. A direct report either gets promoted, quits or gets fired, and we have to manage his or her direct reports in addition to all of our other duties. We are assigned to a special … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Communication, Efficiency, Leadership, Turnaround
1 Comment
Optimize the Overall Business
As business leaders, we strive to have each of our areas improve its efficiency and effectiveness. Accounting, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Operations, Project Management, Customer Service – each of these parts of the business needs to be as effective as possible. Likewise, … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Communication, Focus, Management, Productivity, Project Management, Success
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Think Twice and Do Once
Every Do-It-Yourselfer knows the carpenter’s advice: Measure twice cut once. In successful businesses, a similar recommendation holds true: Think twice and do once. To so many of us, immediate action appears to be essential: We are just doing it! We … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution
Tagged Focus, Productivity, Project Management
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10 Ideas for Improved Organization and Effectiveness
Pre-planning “For every 10 minutes of pre-planning you do, we get four to five hours of productivity improvements.” On a weekly basis, schedule the most important tasks and activities first and build our week around them “The best day begins … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Personal Success
Tagged Communication, Meetings, Productivity, Project Management, Training
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Continuous Improvement and Lean
Driving continuous improvement throughout our organizations is fundamental to short and long-term business success. Continuous improvement requires daily improvement in everything that we (and our teams) do…even when we are too busy! Are we better today than we were yesterday? … Continue reading
The Five Whys of Follow-Up
When General Dwight D. Eisenhower was first elected President in 1952, then President Harry S. Truman remarked: He’ll sit here, and he’ll say, Do this! Do that! And nothing will happen. Poor Ike [nickname for Eisenhower]. It won’t be a … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Consistent Execution, Follow-up, Productivity
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10 Ways to Really (and Truly) Be Organized
With all the meetings, E-Mails, objectives and communications in a typical company, staying organized is a never-ending task. Yet, there are a few fundamentals to follow to ensure that you stay organized and focused on the most important tasks each … Continue reading
