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Tag Archives: Communication
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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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
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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Use Words Well to Lead Well
Our words matter. As leaders, we spend much of our time communicating with others through our actions, our body language, and especially our words. Unfortunately, all too often we do not use our words well leading to poor communication and … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Communication, Learning, Management, Meetings, Project Management, Public Speaking, Teaching
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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
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The Whys of Business
Internet entrepreneur, Simon Sinek, has a popular TED talk on asking why. His primary advice in building a successful company is that: People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Unfortunately, while I admire Mr. Sinek, … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Communication, Leadership
Tagged Business Acumen, Business Leadership, Communication, Why
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Diversity, Inclusion and Respect
Today’s workplaces are more diverse than ever with more work being done in teams. To ensure that everyone is working together well, companies need to be inclusive and embrace diversity and individual differences. The core element behind a diverse and … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Communication, Diversity, Inclusion, Justice, Relationships, Respect
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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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The Do’s and Don’ts of Public Speaking
The ability to speak well in public – whether giving a sales pitch to a customer, presenting at a Board Meeting, or speaking to a large group of employees – is an essential leadership skill. Public speaking is fundamental for … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Leadership, Personal Success
Tagged Communication, Learning, Marketing, Meetings, Public Speaking
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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Communicate Upward
As managers, we need to encourage each of our employees to keep us informed about what is really going on in our companies, both the good and the bad. We need to be kept in the loop about the larger … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Improve / Turnaround, Team / People
Tagged Communication, Honesty, Team, Turnaround, Upward communication
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Remind…Don’t Teach
A fundamental task of a leader is to train and develop his or her team. This often involves coaching and teaching the team on the strategic, operational and leadership skills that are required for them to reach the next level. … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Communication, Leadership
Tagged Communication, Learning, Training
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We Need to Create Time For Our Teams
Many of us aspire to personally be as productive and effective as possible. We read articles and blogs (including some of mine – How to Be 10X More Effective…) and take classes to learn how to get more done in … Continue reading
Mistakes Will Be Made
Four fundamentals to executing and getting things done are: Keep it simple Focus on the important Empower the team to make decisions at the lowest level possible Speed In practice, we often ignore these straightforward guidelines due to one over-riding … Continue reading
Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity
Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity, written by Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn, is an excellent reminder to all of us to rail against complexity and keep things simple. Even though I summarize some of the key points below, I … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Perform / Execution, Personal Success
Tagged Business Leadership, Business Transformation, Business Turnarounds, Communication, Competitive Advantage, Customer Service, Leadership Success, Less is More, Marketing, Personal Productivity, Problem Solving, Process Improvement, Simplicity
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