Purpose Starts with Who

  Simon Sinek’s video “Start with Why” is entertaining and does a great job of highlighting the importance of mission and a purpose-driven organization. In his example, he states that Apple’s “why” is to “challenge the status quo and to think differently” What if nobody cares?  There are a bunch of companies out there that…

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Leaders are the Founders of the Feast

Founder of the Feast

  While the Cratchit family feasted on Christmas dinner, a toast was given: “Mr. Scrooge!” said Bob; “I’ll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!” “The Founder of the Feast indeed!” cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. “I wish I had him here. I’d give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he’d…

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Decision Making:  Peter Drucker’s Framework

Decision Making Framework

Successful business owners and leaders make effective decisions.  We face decisions every day, some of them are routine, and some of them require strategy. I often see leaders or groups struggling with a decision because they don’t have a framework with which to operate. The 7 decision questions that I learned from Peter Drucker. If…

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Sales Managers need to do 3 Fundamental Things

Sales Managers need to do 3 things

Sales Managers have a critical role in creating results in a business.  They are the lever in the organization.  That is the goal, anyway.  Often, however, they have management meetings, or customer service issues, or maybe a sales quota themselves. When this happens, the urgent torpedoes their abilities.  In a previous blog, we discussed that…

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Small Business Needs 3 Things

3 things small business needs.

Small Business is hard work.  You don’t have the resources of the enterprise and you have the same needs.  I often have conversations with small business owners/CEOs and these conversations often go the same way.  That is, the owner is overworked and the team is working hard, but they aren’t as profitable as they should…

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Learn Management & Leadership Differently

Management and Leadership

    One of the great leadership lessons is found in the life of Cyrus. He was a brilliant military strategist, and was skilled in the art of relationships. What made him so unique is that once an enemy was conquered, he built relationships and alliances with them that created indebtedness to his leadership and…

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Results Only Happen Outside the Organization

Results only happen outside the organization

A friend’s company has opportunities for ridiculous growth. For years, she has been reorganizing, tinkering with technology, planning and strategizing, yet her company’s results are flat. She seems to always be on the verge of a breakthrough, “right after” she finishes or fixes the next thing.  She spends her time and resources on internal projects…

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Change, Transformation, and Preservation

Change Transformation Preservation

Consider the change we have experienced since the millennial celebration. There have been wars, stock market bubbles and crashes, technological innovations, social turmoil, global strife, political anxiety, and economic crisis. It is most likely that rate of change over the next 15 years will at least continue. While transformation, disruption, and abandonment are necessary strategies…

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How Does Core Emotional Strength Make Better Leaders?

leadership qualities, core emotional strength

Your leadership ability is limited or expanded by how much authority and strength you control over yourself. We have all experienced an impulsive reaction to someone or something.  Those moments typically have regrets involved and often require an action to be taken to correct the problem we created. Working from core emotional strength reduces the frequency…

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Trust and Leading in Today’s Organization

Trust is the cornerstone of our society

Recently, the “Panama Papers” revealed a sprawling web of corruption among world leaders. Following that, the EPA convicted CEO of Massey Energy of conspiracy. Last year, Volkswagen cheated on emission testing. FIFA, Soccer’s governing body bribed officials to win the World Cup venues. Scandals abound. According to the Gallup organization www.gallup.com, our confidence in big…

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