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Leading Transformational Strategy – Next Practices
Not all business strategies require the same degree of change to be considered successful. Many are simply a continuation of an already established path and destination. Others identify the change in some areas of the business but those changes do not represent a significant departure from the status quo. Some strategies however require transformational change. These strategies are usually…
Strategy – Why It’s Broken and How To Fix It
Only 20%-30% of corporate and business unit strategies successfully deliver expected results. That is a bold statement. However, this statistic has been reported in many studies from reputable firms and publications and mirrors much of what I have observed and experienced during my career. Despite awareness of the problem, the statistic itself has not really changed much in the last 20 years.…
The Language of Leadership: 5 Actions To Transform Performance
Our organizational world is constituted and shaped by language. It is also accessed and made available to us through language. Language acts as the lens through which we can see and understand the challenges presented, and subsequently, make sense of and provide solutions for. In 1973, Salvador Allende, Chile's democratically elected president, died in a bloody coup. Fernando Flores, who was then…
Being A Great Leader: How Do You Balance Career Success and Happiness?
Being great, living an extraordinary life starts with waking up. Most people don't even know they are asleep. As the Jesuit spiritual leader, Anthony De Mello said, “They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. Yet all is well, and though everything is a mess in the world, all is very well.…
I Know Your Biggest Blind Spot – Do You?
They're called blind spots for a reason - you can't see them. We all have blind spots, but the one most often impacting leaders is their unwillingness to ask for help. News Flash – “help” is not a dirty word. I have always believed asking for help is a sign of maturity as a leader. I think John Lennon said it best: “I get by with a little help from my friends.” So my question is this - are you…
Flip Your Organization Chart
Do you know what everyone in your organization does? To find out, you might want to change your perspective. Years ago I learned to draw reading Betty Edwards’ book, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.” The effort sharpened my perspective of just about everything. To draw, I learned to see differently and I walked away with a clearer, fuller appreciation of the things around me. This new…
Potential – Why It’s Over-Hyped
My premise is simple; one of the worst things an organization can do is reward potential. Identifying and recognizing potential is important, but rewarding it can be lethal. Rewarding potential has placed many gifted people in way over their heads and set them up for failure. Rather than rewarding potential, companies must learn to properly cultivate it - there is a difference. Here’s the thing –…
If I Were 22 – Advice For New Graduates
Graduation is a joyous time full of accolades and recognitions, serious reflection, and great anticipation. By all means, enjoy graduation – you worked hard to reach this point. That said, my advice is don’t get too caught up in the pomp and circumstance – real life is about to hit you in the face. In the text that follows I’ll share 10 tips for jump starting your future as you enter the…
The Toxic Leader
There is a new definition of leadership in our lexicon. The seagull leader is someone who flies in, s**t’s over everything, and leaves. I’m constantly amazed when working inside organizations that the names and examples of such people come up constantly in the conversation. Yet rather than being weeded out, they seem to survive and thrive in an institutional ethic that values by choosing short…
The Brilliance Of Naiveté
I was speaking with a colleague last week who at one point in our conversation referred a third party as being naïve, to which my response was, “I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing – perhaps we should all be a bit more naïve.” The seed I was trying to plant was that if people (particularly those in leadership) spent less time defending what they think they know, and more time exploring the vast…
How To Find The Perfect Job
For some, getting a job (much less the right job) has never been more difficult. They struggle with knowing how to navigate in a complicated, noisy world where the global job market is messy and very competitive. For others, it doesn’t matter what’s going on in the job market, because finding the perfect position never seems to present a challenge. The latter group knows a few secrets the former…
The Five Obsessions of Winning Teams
March Madness resumes tonight and in a pressure-packed weekend of excitement, the Sweet Sixteen will shrink to the Final Four. Only the strongest teams will survive and while their defensive pressure, explosive running game, or deep shooting might define their style, their success rests on five obsessions. These obsessions are common to champions and may very well help your team in your…
The Essence Of Leadership
Any way you slice it, leadership is a tricky business. Everyone has an opinion on leadership, and in particular on specific leaders. With virtually every enterprise on the planet in such zealous pursuit of leaders and leadership, why is it so many fail in their quest for improved leadership performance? Few will dispute the value of sound leadership, and likewise, few will debate the devastating…
Leaders Who Think More – Accomplish More
I’ve always been amazed at the number of tremendously gifted leaders who underutilize the one asset most responsible for their success – their brain. It’s not that leaders don’t think; it’s that they don’t think enough. And when they do find time to think, many leaders often think about the wrong things, in the wrong ways, at the wrong times. My message is simple, but not necessarily easy; to do…
On Being a Leader of Integrity: 4 Ways to Build Personal and Organizational Integrity
Are you a person of integrity? Chances are you and everyone reading this article will answer in the affirmative. This introduces a massive blind-spot we have in our lives and organizations: self-deception – as none of us can say we have full integrity. So, first, how do we define integrity? Webster’s New World Dictionary gives two definitions of “integrity”: the first is the quality or state of…
On Being an Authentic Leader
Wolfgang Beltracchi is the most successful art forger in history. His fake paintings have sold for $46 million to museums and private collections all over the world. He says the experts hate him because he managed to fool them for decades - he eventually wound up in jail. Some say what he did was a crime against the art culture and others think it was acceptable because he didn’t hurt anyone.…