Effective leadership in our complex world requires more than just setting goals and strategies. It demands creating an environment where teams can thrive. We’d like to believe that those on our team think like us, and have the insight and drive to do what we would do to accelerate progress. But we don’t know what it’s like to be them, and they don’t see what we see, or know what we know. They may want …
When people experience their work as meaningful, they are more engaged, committed, and satisfied – all of which increase performance.
Leadership is about achieving sustainable results that enhance competitive advantage and deliver measurable business benefits. It’s a quest for enduring improvement. Successful improvement projects begin by asking what is possible, before considering what is wrong. Leaders and teams collaborate to envision positive outcomes and set clear improvement goals before assessing current processes. When mapping existing processes, clarify responsibilities and measure time for each step. Then, focus on the time lost between each step; this is …
Trust is the foundation of all caring, beneficial relationships – both personal and professional. It enables open communication, genuine commitment, and mutual accountability. For leaders, trust is the key to motivating action and driving sustainable progress. The genesis of trust is generosity – a genuine intention to help others. Trustworthy leaders build this foundation of trust in two ways: But even the best leaders will face situations that threaten trust. It may be caused by …
A company’s culture binds an organization together, facilitating strategy execution and performance improvements. When appreciated and nurtured, a culture’s distinctive characteristics create a unique identity that’s hard for competitors to copy, providing an enduring competitive advantage. Winning cultures see performance as an explicit output, and foster an environment that is conducive to generating the best possible results for their customers, employees, and other key stakeholders. The behaviors modelled by these cultures help employees see their …
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 …
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 …
