Leading: Seven Genres of Business Communication
The essence of leadership lies in a person’s ability to communicate ideas and information in a manner that inspires and guides others. Business communication is more art than science and lends itself to being classified into genres, as with other art forms. The applicable genre for the art of business depends upon the situation. I’ll […]
Fired Up!
I was enjoying dinner on an outdoor patio at a busy downtown restaurant, when it began to sprinkle rain from a fast-moving cloud. At that moment, a waiter who was visiting with patrons at another table looked up at the sky and then came racing down the patio, loudly exclaiming “PLEASE, NO!!”. I appreciated his […]
Leading: Set the Tone
You’re being watched. No, not by the NSA, or some other clandestine agency. It’s your employees, and your customers, who have their eyes on you. They watch what you do and know it’s much more important than whatever you say. As a leader, you set the tone: Good, bad or indifferent. When you’re a leader […]
Leading: Look and Listen
You can’t lead from behind a desk—or over the telephone. If you want to be a leader, you need to personally look at the front-line reality in your business, where your employees meet your company’s customers. In the military, it’s what leaders would call learning the “ground truth,” which can be very different than what […]
Leading: Details, Always
The third crucial leadership skill is paying attention to the details, always. Once you’ve assembled the right team (People First) and galvanized them into a cohesive group focused on your shared vision (Purpose Second), the key to achieving success is embedded in paying attention to the daily details that add up to make a huge […]
Leading: Purpose Second
Once you’ve put People First and have assembled the right core team, a leader must assure that he or she is working in sync with other team members toward shared goals. This depends on having a crystal clear vision of what you’re seeking to accomplish. Purpose Second. It’s not enough for an owner or business […]
Leading: People First
I learned a few things about business as an undergraduate in college, plus a few more in grad school. The combined curriculum of finance, accounting, economics, marketing, management, statistics, organization theory, business law, communications and other courses all provided me with a useful foundation for effective business analysis and decision-making. It wasn’t until I dove […]
From Many: One
Leadership is a Journey. Our 2017 Leadership Forum brought together Many from across our business for One Purpose: to drive positive changes in things that matter. Leadership has continuous improvement at its heart. As I listened, absorbed and processed the creative energy around me, I observed Many: Talented people from vastly different backgrounds; States and […]
Change the Rules!
If you can’t or don’t want to play your competitor’s game, change the rules! Just because that’s the way it’s always been, or the RFP says so, doesn’t mean that a fresh approach isn’t needed. In fact, that provides all the more reason to become proactive. Rules are necessary in most aspects of life. They […]
Next, or Higher?
Which do you aspire to reach: “The Next Level” or “A Higher Level”? The expressions mean two very different things to me. I just read an article about a leadership change in a local organization, where the board chairman commented about setting the organization up “for the next person to take it to the next […]