so your vision is never lost.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

 
Bowling With Your Boss: Evaluation Cruelty
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 […]
Truth is Stranger Than Fiction
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 […]
Joy is the Magic Behind Success
  Sometimes in business we lose joy in the day-to-day grind of business, our tasks, and in our interactions with customers and suppliers. As leaders, we have a responsibility to make sure the magic is there, that we feel joy and our team as well. Whether we are achieving or struggling, we have to find ways to ‘feel the wind in our hair’. To take pride in our work and make sure those on our teams are as well. You […]
Work Hard and Smart Everyday
Each of us in the workforce wants to believe that we are hard workers. It is recognized by leaders and coworkers everywhere. “Did you see Fred; he was here until 8:00pm?” Most leaders appreciate that type of dedication and it is true, sometimes, putting your “nose to the grind stone” and powering through a task is exactly what it takes to get the job done. But you shouldn’t overlook the necessity of working smart. Working smart affects your job satisfaction […]
Be Real to Be the Best
We have a client who is planning to become President of an association shortly.  We have worked with him, his business and his family for years.  He is a good man who cares about the community and is involved and giving with his time and many causes.  When we talked recently, we encouraged him to just be Joe Citizen: Joe Citizen with some of the job duties of being the President.  Why? We want him to look through the other […]
Don’t Make Dreams Your Master
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 […]
Make Time for Later Now
Planning for the future right now is critical for organizations to be successful. In a recent meeting, a Leadership Team voiced frustrations that they had “no time to plan, strategize and set goals.” There is no team, business, couple, or individual that has time to do it all. It is the planning that helps identify what is important, what has priority and if you are all moving in the same direction. You must make time to make a plan, review […]
Are you about to lose someone?
It’s fascinating to see how different individuals leaving a company choose to handle their departure. We have seen key people getting ready to leave for another job approach this many different ways: not telling anyone, telling at least one other person, or telling everyone upfront. You may want to know, what difference it makes if they are leaving? The truth is – A LOT! In the first case, the person leaving actually told us instead of the appropriate person in […]
Prevent Fear from Clouding Vision
  While doing interviews with clients and employees, the biggest issue we have to tackle is fear. It is a huge problem for teams and businesses. Fear makes individuals look inward to think and rather than taking responsibility, they begin looking outward for reasons to explain their issues. This is non-productive and leads to blame, more excuses and causes inaction. Once fear has a hold, it robs us of our power and strength. Our job is to help clients overcome […]