Good Leaders Don’t Disappear
This article in strategy+business makes some excellent points on leadership. Being a leader means putting yourself out there; even if you might be wrong. You need to be confident enough to take a stand, but flexible enough to listen to other points of view that might differ from yours. You need to be consistent in how you show up, as this article points out. Leaders who are...
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Effort Beats Perfection
So once again, I’m a bit behind in my blogging. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, it just takes time away from other “decided” priorities. It seems relatively easy for most of us to focus on the urgent vs. the important. Things crop up every day that seem to get in the way of doing what we really should be doing that day. A...
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“Fire, Ready, Aim” – not the best strategy
Is your organization following the “Fire, Ready, Aim” approach to strategy? If so, how’s that working for ya? I suspect not the best, but it’s what you know and you’re so dang busy reacting to the demands of daily business, who has time to plan? If that’s what you’re doing, then you’re not doing it right. When things are going well, it is the best...
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Do you Create Leaders or Followers?
Does your leadership style create leaders or followers? In the old ‘command and control’ days, creating followers was the way you succeeded. However, for a truly successful company, it’s more important to create leaders than followers. This YouTube video from L. David Marquet entitled “What is Leadership?” gives us a perspective on how to create leaders and thus a more effective organization. Now I ask...
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Are you good or just lucky?
Strategy is an over-used word. Strategic planning is considered by many to be a waste of time. A significant percentage of companies don’t even have a plan. So the question becomes: ‘Are you good or just lucky?’ For those of you who think strategic planning is a waste of time, you can stop reading right now. I’m not here to try to convince you when you see...
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How’s that Strategic Plan implementation going?
So everything was going great when you came up with that strategic plan. You have the Strategic Goals, the Key Priorities, the Actions and even the Measurement piece. You’ve decided who’s accountable for what and when it’s supposed to be completed. Then something happened. Your day got in the way. All those pesky routine tasks seemed to take priority and you’re now finding yourself behind...
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Creating a value proposition is part of business strategy
I would venture to guess that most CEOs do not have the courage to challenge their strategies. In this recent article from strategy + business, two significant questions are asked: 1. What distinctive capabilities make the company better than any other at how it adds value to its individual businesses, and how those businesses meet their promises to customers? 2. Are changes happening in the company’s world...
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What if we don’t change at all and something magical just happens?
I saw the title of this blog in a cartoon yesterday and it not only had me laughing, but had me thinking about strategy. And as a friend and colleague of mine also says “Hope is not a strategy.” While many companies will most likely not consciously say this, by their actions, this is exactly what they’re planning on – or more precisely they’re not...
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What does your acquisition integration plan look like?
The statistics are depressing. One out of 5 mergers create value. 80-90% of acquisitions fail. 50% of acquisitions actually decrease value. So with that, why would you even consider entering into this pothole? Yet, day after day, companies enter into new agreements to acquire something, merge with someone or to be sold and hope for the best. If you’re the seller and you don’t have...
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What’s the trick to starting new businesses within corporations?
I was consulting to a Fortune 500 company a while back on helping them develop new businesses internally. I’ve done quite a bit of that and find it fascinating, challenging and most certainly tricky. The senior executive in charge of executing this strategy said to me: “You’ve done a lot of this. In your experience, what are the 3 key things you’ve learned?” That took...
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