The nexus of purpose and time is progress – the prime directive for every leader. Time is currency, and in the end, it’s the only currency that matters. There’s only so much of it, and it’s unrecoverable. While reacting to your daily barrage of issues, many of them urgent, it’s easy to lose track of how much valuable time is being consumed in reaction mode. And then there are the unexpected distractions, the changing priorities, …
Perspective is one of a leader’s most powerful tools. Acknowledging and respecting the perspectives of others enables the relationship building that is foundational for achieving goals, developing others, and delivering sustained improvements. The power of perspective is an intentional discipline, requiring time and commitment to develop. By learning how to see situations through the lenses of others, as well as their own, leaders open the aperture of their own lens, broadening and deepening their understanding …
You’ve invested much to create and strengthen your competitive advantage; it’s a combination of your offerings and your culture. Leveraging it to productively drive your growth, in an increasingly dynamic market, compels you to consider how best to invest your precious time and resources going forward. Your customers, your competitors, and you are simultaneously experiencing the same evolving market trends, so what is valued, and what creates value, is changing more rapidly. Staying abreast of …
Before there can be accountability, there must be commitment. Commitment is taking ownership of a challenge, being responsible for resolving it, in alignment with your company’s goals and values. It reflects an obligation, by leader and team, to improve something that makes a difference. And because it requires the assumption of risk, commitment is much more than consensus. Commitment requires that your team grasps why a goal, strategy or action is necessary, and is willing …
The leadership mandate is: The leadership challenge is to develop an operating style that fulfills this mandate while effectively managing persistent, short-term, changing priorities that demand attention. If your team’s time is consumed with resolving urgent issues, then the vital, longer-term improvement work goes undone; you’re always reacting, not leading. Key to sustaining a productive balance between short and long-term priorities is consistently integrating strategy into team discussions. Certainly, there are times when leaders must …
The most productive scenario for effective communication is a one-on-one discussion or small team meeting; it provides the best opportunity to ensure that the message being heard is the same as the message being spoken, making the message actionable. Every other communication method is a compromise, driven by circumstance or preference. According to communication experts, less than 10% of our spoken words are heard and understood; about 40% of message comprehension is due to how …
When considering how to improve their business performance, leaders typically discover that doing so requires an assessment of policies and activities outside their direct authority, the inputs and outputs which enable the functional work that is their responsibility. The most productive and enduring improvement initiatives are those that solve persistent business problems impacting multiple, connected functional departments. Soliciting their peers to join them in the diagnostic and remedial journeys of these collaborative, cross-functional improvement efforts requires that …
The prime directive for leaders is to improve things – results, SOPs, team performance, policies, etc. It’s why leaders are hired. It’s what differentiates leaders from managers; management competency is the stepping stone towards leadership. To motivate action by their teams in response to this directive, leaders employ two skills more than any others – they influence and they inspire. Influencing involves leaders leveraging their knowledge and experience, and engaging openly and transparently with their …
A new business is laser focused on earning and keeping customers. The promise-makers and promise-keepers in the business are well aligned in their appreciation of customers because survival depends on getting the next order. As the business grows, it seeks to capitalize on what has enabled its success, so procedures are standardized and structure is added to manage those procedures, with the objectives of sustaining efficiency and managing risk. With good intention, lots of internal, …
Commitment to a goal or strategy is more than just acknowledging one’s agreement – it’s a complete buy-in. To be truly committed to a plan, team members must have clarity about what the plan is and why it’s the best way forward. For team members to acquire clarity, they need the opportunity to contribute their opinions and ideas during the decision-making process. By thoroughly exploring alternative approaches, the team can better see, and then decide, …
