so your vision is never lost.
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
This title may be a little extreme, but there are many leaders who have not grown an organization and do not realize the challenges. Growing organizations eat time, energy, cash flow, and morale. Until one has experience with growing a business, it can be dangerous. Growth can be so exciting that it masks a multitude of sins that may be unnoticeable until it is too late. We have a client that has grown to over 16 locations. The leadership team […]
In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Don Hadley, discusses being busy vs. productive. Being productive means “achieving or producing a significant amount or result.” Being busy is not the same as being productive. Whether it is a lack of confidence in themselves or those around them, some leaders are unable to hand off work and responsibilities to others and have difficulty prioritizing. We have found over the last 30 years that this “busyness” is actually masking other […]
In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Don Hadley, discusses acquisitions and the importance of taking the time to understand the people. When organizations hire one individual, it is important that salary, job description, values and heart are a fit with the individual and the culture. However, if there is a value or culture issues that arises with only one person, the success of an organization is not in jeopardy. Mergers and acquisitions, though, are considerably more complicated. Often […]
In working with teams, we frequently run across a common frustration where meetings do not feel productive. The meetings take too long and give too little actionable information; attendees are there in body, but not in heart, mind and spirit. We have a number of tactical tools to deal with this. One way is to ask at the end of every meeting, “What do we need to stop doing?” I asked that in a meeting last week. One member suggested […]
In a recent discussion with Joe Young of Waypoint, we were talking about becoming experts. He indicated that it takes about 500 hours of doing something to really become good at it in other words, an expert. While the amount of time may depend on the topic (i.e. nuclear physics vs. woodcarving), he was making the point that our most valuable commodity is time. Most of our time is spent on who we are now. Joe calls this “Expense Time”. […]
In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Don Hadley, discusses capturing people’s imagination. Many times as adults we lose the ability to use our imagination. We have found that by communicating with leaders and teams in a way that allows us to capture their imagination, we are able to draw on deeper thinking and cause or drive more powerful actions to be taken. As children we are masters of using our imagination to drive what we do and where […]
We have a client that after most meetings, he asks the question, “Do you feel like I am doing a good job?” It is interesting because it is not at the beginning, but at the end after we have had discussions of what needs to be done to improve the results. It is almost as if he wants affirmation that he is becoming a “success”. As we have listened though, it sounds more like he wants validation that he is […]
In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Don Hadley, discusses getting results. We have found over the last 30 years that those leaders and business owners that “get things done” are those that in fact never focus on actually getting it done. Rather, these leaders focus on building relationships with those around them. Whether it is their employees, their suppliers, or their customers, they take the time to understand the other person, their needs, etc. This focus on building […]
We heard a comment recently from someone that having to look for your life’s purpose was sad. On the contrary, it can be very exciting. Early on in life, we may accept other people’s goals for our own; we may take advantage of an immediate opportunity and hang onto it for too long; or we may deal with an immediate problem in a way that takes us off course. By the same token, if we keep learning and maturing, our […]