Most CEOs I meet run their organizations atop a false assumption that creates a powerful yet almost invisible drag on their performance. Do you have the same false assumption that they do? The assumption is that your communication of strategy, tactics, goals, and behaviors through the organization actually works the way you intend. Yes, you’re [...]
Are you a Genius or a Genius Maker? How about your senior team – are they Geniuses or Genius Makers? If you’re the smartest person in the room you’re a genius. If you surround yourself with the smartest people in the room and continually strive to help them get even smarter, you’re a genius maker. [...]
Are you a Genius or a Genius Maker? How about your management team – are they Geniuses or Genius Makers? If you’re the smartest person in the room you’re a Genius. If you surround yourself with the smartest people in the room, you’re a Genius Maker. These terms and concepts come from the book ”Multipliers – [...]
Business is fundamentally an extended conversation. Whether you’re speaking with your boss, team members, colleagues or direct reports, conversations shape what gets done. As a leader, you must engineer conversations to foster clarity, cooperation, creativity and a connection to company values. Sadly, the quality of many work conversations borders on mediocrity and/or boredom, with meaning [...]
A new McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy study published by the Harvard Business Review reports that no matter what the size of your business – SURPRISE! – the way you treat employees at the lowest rungs of the company ladder can have a positive impact on your bottom line. This finding seems to be [...]
Most likely, there are several people in your life to whom you can’t seem to get through. You try persuasion, logic, pleading, anger and bargaining, but you hit a wall every time. Most people, when faced with resistance, speak louder, persuade harder, encourage, cajole, argue and push. The end result is greater resistance. But when [...]
How do you spend your time? This question is painfully simple, yet it plays a major role in the execution of your firm’s vision and priorities. Sadly, many leaders cannot accurately answer it. You may be surprised to find a sizable disconnect between your top priorities and how you actually spend your time. People take [...]
Not a month goes by without some highly publicized ethical scandal. Be it tax evasion, executive pay excesses, sexual dalliances and outright fraud, many individuals are simply unable to resist temptation. Does this make the perpetrators corrupt sociopaths? Sometimes, but usually not. They’re often leaders and pillars of the community, and their actions leave us [...]
How do you spend your time? This question is painfully simple, yet it plays a major role in the execution of your firm’s vision and priorities. Sadly, many leaders cannot accurately answer it. You may be surprised to find a sizable disconnect between your top priorities and how you actually spend your time. People take [...]
This is Tom Peters’ latest video message and it highlights the importance of “out-reading” your competition. In case you’re wondering who Tom Peters is, publications including Fortune, the Economist, the New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times have said Tom is the “uber-guru” of management and inventor of the enormous “management guru industry,” that “in no [...]
Are you an “influence genius?” Take this short quiz to determine your Influence IQ and to learn about influence and persuasion techniques. Choose the best answer from the options to discover your Influence Quotient. Dr Robert Cialdini, the leading expert on Influence and Persuasion presents a simple quiz that can help you (and your team) [...]
I met Stony earlier this month on a flight from Newark to Houston. He was on his way home to Mobile, Alabama. I was on my way to deliver a keynote presentation to the Texas General Counsel Forum in San Antonio. Stony was working in the New York area for 9 days replacing all of [...]
In late August our summer vacation took us to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. If that’s a part of our country you’ve never visited, I suggest that you add it to your destination list – the beaches are beautiful, the environment is quiet and clean, and there is an incredible amount of history to [...]
In today’s mile-a-minute, e-connected, global, frenetic, here-today-gone-tomorrow world of commerce, it is no surprise that many of us don’t take enough time to select and focus on our most important business objectives. Whether you employ 4 or 400, crystal clear focus combined with a steady cadence of accountability will dramatically improve your competitive positioning and [...]
How often in your business do things go exactly as you expect? If you have prospects, customers, and employees your answer is most likely “not as often as I’d like.” Humans are imperfect and messy – so how do you and your staff actually behave when the unexpected occurs? In my first ever video blog, [...]
Assumptions make our lives easier. That’s both good news and bad. As creatures of habit, we seek efficiency through the use of assumptions in lieu of active thought to drive most of our behaviors. With few exceptions, what we do in any given 24-hour period demands little conscious thought because we’ve developed habits that help [...]
Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and it’s a great example of what I call a “recognition holiday.” That is – since 1908, if you’re a mom, then you deserve to be recognized and thanked on Mother’s Day. Period. End of story. No other qualification or accomplishment is required. For some, Mother’s Day is a rare [...]
Like death and taxes, change in business is at once inevitable and difficult to comprehend. It also happens to be necessary if your aim is to create a sustainable, competitive enterprise. Ignore this imperative at your own peril, as history has taught us over and over again. Once great firms like AT&T, Polaroid, and A&P [...]
(This is part two of a two-part post on Leadership. Please see last week’s post for part one) Ask yourself how you’re doing and what you should be doing differently—and be sure to answer truthfully. As simple as this may sound, many people are shocked by their answers to basic management and leadership questions. Last [...]
Leaders are remembered for their best and worst judgment calls, especially when the stakes are high, information is limited and the correct call is far from obvious. In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty and conflicting demands, the quality of a leader’s judgment and decision making determines the entire organization’s fate. That’s why leadership [...]
