Read more about the article Leadership | There’s a simple one-word formula to avoid an ass-whuppin’

Leadership | There’s a simple one-word formula to avoid an ass-whuppin’

PREPARE to Win … or get ready to get your butt kicked!

 

Barbie Doll HouseMany moons ago when my daughter was 3 years old, she really wanted a Barbie dollhouse for Christmas.

She never played with Barbie dolls … never liked them much either … but she loved all the little people and things in that doll house.

We found one and hid it in the attic to await Christmas Eve when we could sneak it under the Christmas tree.

My wife and I went up to the attic around 10 p.m. that evening and it was only then when I noticed the small print on the side of the large box … “less than 500 pieces.”

Assembly Required?

What? 500 pieces? To assemble? At this hour? Alas, yes … and man, was it painful to have to stay up until 3 a.m. putting it together. How’s that for preparation? (more…)

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Read more about the article Leadership Obstacles: No execution? No results!

Leadership Obstacles: No execution? No results!

Strategy and Execution
If the execution of a company’s plans is an avowed priority, critical to the success of both the CEO and the business, why aren’t CEOs spending enough time on it to make it successful?

Why is it that every time the Conference Board surveys CEOs to identify their Top Ten Challenges, “consistent execution of strategy” or “excellence in execution” is invariably cited as being in the top two or three “greatest concerns”?

Yet, when CEOs are asked about their greatest disappointments or failures, they routinely list their company’s inability to execute?

Conundrum … Mystery … Enigma

Huh?

How is it that a subject among the top three goals of most CEOs is the very one where the CEO has the least amount of success? Is this simply a conundrum tucked inside a mystery hidden inside an enigma … or can we sort out some of this ambiguity? (more…)

Continue ReadingLeadership Obstacles: No execution? No results!
Read more about the article Leadership Obstacles: There’s no one to blame … except yourself

Leadership Obstacles: There’s no one to blame … except yourself

Entrepreneur with binoculars looking to future

Déjà vu all over again?

How often have you heard that phrase banging against your skull … and how often was it telling you …

“I’ve been here before” …

“Didn’t we already solve this problem?” …

“Why does this subject keep coming up all the time?”

Why do these issues keep resurfacing?

Late last year, I embarked on a retrospective of my first 100 newspaper columns from the last four years. You may recall that I emphasized how often so many of those issues continue to be the same challenges year after year.

They’re constantly resurfacing, often in disguise as a different issue altogether … but really, the same ‘ol, same ‘ol.

Have we become dumb and dumberer?

I promised you then that we would attack the litany of reasons that these same issues keep popping up like whack-a-moles. I don’t think we’ve gotten “dumb and dumberer,” so what’s going on? Why are we tackling the same problems over and over again? (more…)

Continue ReadingLeadership Obstacles: There’s no one to blame … except yourself
Read more about the article Leadership Lessons: Hope Springs Eternal … but it’s not enough!

Leadership Lessons: Hope Springs Eternal … but it’s not enough!

Nothing but LEADERSHIPFor most of us, this is the time of the year when hope springs eternal.

We’re revved up for an exciting new year, determined to change all of the things that didn’t work last year so we can pound the ball out of the park in 2012.

Nothing wrong with any of that. Commitment, momentum, focus … these are the energies that will fuel our engine and help us jumpstart 2012 with the vigor and rigor that we need to make this year the most successful ever.

Does your gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?

Yet, like most New Year’s resolutions we’ve made, the “gum loses its flavor on the bedpost overnight”.

We soon discover that it’s much easier to start than to finish.

We struggle to keep the engine stoked with the same energy that propelled us into the New Year.

We begin to feel some of the air already coming out of the tires, and begin to wonder … “where did that new-found energy go”?

What’s that whimpering sound?

It comes back to that whimpering sound of “hope springs eternal.” (more…)

Continue ReadingLeadership Lessons: Hope Springs Eternal … but it’s not enough!