Growing up in Minnesota, shoveling snow was a frequent activity. But my mother’s definition of shoveling the driveway wasn’t quite the same as mine. I figured if there were two tracks for tires we were good to go. She thought that visible concrete was a beautiful thing and wanted the entire drive cleared. I say […]
I’m reading “The Vitality Imperative: How connected leaders and their teams achieve more with less time, money, and stress” by Mickey Connolly, Jim Motroni and Richard McDonald. I love an analogy they put forth. “Eons ago, humans valued fire and yet could not create it. When lightning struck (literally), people captured the fire and tended […]
I’m a fan of looking for examples of great strategy and leadership in unusual places. Although I focus on for-profit business leaders, I’ve seen some great examples from other venues such as the Girl Scouts and the United States Marine Corps. A recent story on NPR caught my attention. Ogden, Utah, has the highest percentage […]
I recently wrote about the challenge of not being able to answer the question, “Who’s in charge here?” (Click here to read.) I often write my blogs after encountering something in the business world that causes me to think about a topic. It might be a client problem, something from the headlines or an issue […]
I wish that I had a dollar for every story that I have heard of lack of clarity around responsibility causing poor company performance. When I hear of a poor performing region, product, division, or business process I always start by asking, “Who owns this?” If there is no clear answer, that—in and of itself—is […]
Extreme circumstances test how prepared we really are You’ll enjoy this guest blog this week from my colleague, David Martin! Is your basement waterproof? Wait until it rains 10 days in a row. Then you’ll know. Did your marathon training pay off? Wait until you hit “the wall” at mile 21. Then you’ll know. Does a […]
I recently sat next to well-dressed, articulate, successful guy on an airplane. He was an oral surgeon who had emigrated from India to England and then later to the United States. While the work required for re certification in his profession was immense as was building a practice several times, he had “made it.” He […]
Leaders are Paid to Make Hard Decisions Henry Kissinger said, “To plan policy on the assumption of the equal possibility of all contingencies is to confuse statesmanship with mathematics.” Let’s change three words to make this a brilliant statement regarding business strategy. “To craft strategy on the assumption of the equal possibility of all contingencies […]
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal* extolled the virtues of good followership, pointing out that not everyone can be in charge. I agree, although I think good following is much more than the one example the article cites — speaking up when your boss is wrong. My experience, however, is that good followers […]
Properly diagnose the problem and really “see” the issue Feeling good because my first cast landed a rainbow trout, I confidently tried to cast underneath a low hanging tree and ended up with a tangled mess of flies and line that took 10 minutes to unravel. I’m relatively new to fly-fishing and am amazed (and […]