so your vision is never lost.
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
The Golden Rule is something I hear about quite often: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I grew up with that rule, but over the years, it has created much frustration on my part in terms of getting leaders to lead and teams to be teams in a powerful manner. It has also limited the ability and results of leaders and teams in molding culture. It has bogged down processes and allowed strategic plans to […]
Do you remember talking about the “fight or flight” instinct in school? Have you seen it in action? During a team meeting recently, one person intended to “fight” and as the intensity of the interaction increased, it led to another team member to take “flight”. One was blaming, accusing and increasing the volume and intensity of their voice and the other person chose to stand up, walk out of the meeting, get in their vehicle and leave. While not optimal […]
Running an organization is like flying an airplane, although it is not as dramatic. When an airplane has a warning light go on, the crew reacts. In business, too often leaders wait to see what happens…and they wait…and they wait… and by the time the crash occurs, it is too late. We have identified seven typical situations where we see slow death occur within organizations. Leaders in these situations must make changes to get to a new and better reality. […]
The goal of a bonus program is to motivate employees to achieve results in valuable way for everyone. In other words, they should be designed to get everyone from the receptionist to management to leadership to owners all “rowing the boat in the same direction”. Sometimes though, bonus programs are poorly set up, measure the wrong results, set people against each other and/or do not communicate what is happening until after the fact Below is a brief history of bonus […]
Imagine bowling with your boss… You throw the ball down the lane, but your boss has a sheet between you and the pins. You hear something happening, lots of noise, but no idea of what actually happened. How many pins are left standing? Where are they? Was that perhaps a gutter ball? You then ask how you are doing and the response is, “don’t worry about it, I will tell you at the end of the year.” Imagine this happening […]
Experienced leaders often know a few factors that are absolutely critical to the success of an organization. When they consider joining or acquiring a business, they look for these same factors. One of these is so vital that without it, not only is progress at risk, but the very existence of the organization maybe in jeopardy. Organizations that successfully do acquisitions know this secret. The secret factor is the magic of the heart. It is the reason we get […]
Dreams are a tool, in that they can give us a starting point. A discharge of the information collected from that day, likely with some reorganization. In many ways, dreams are just a mental construct of an “ideal” or of “perfection”. If we are waiting for an exact dream with all the answers to act, we may end up seriously disappointed and have a negative view about life. Additionally, if we keep pushing toward the dream without paying attention to […]
Some organizations believe that the goal of every interaction is to engage everybody. There’s an entire industry out there of consultants, trainers and coaches that tell the general public, business leaders, and teams that they need to engage their people. We believe in general that is true; however, as a sound bite, it sends the wrong message. Engaging everyone can get too much happening too quickly and engagement may not be right for an individual situation or team. We have […]
If everyone was direct, open and specific about their opinions on all issues, surveys would not be needed. However, the reality is that surveys not only get opinions that are hard to get otherwise, they are also valuable because: They cause people to think more since they can take time and come up with a deeper answer. Some people will respond in writing and not verbally. The questions can be specifically written to find out exactly what you need to […]