leading during tough times Archives

Leadership Caffeine™ for the Week of March 22, 2009

One of the great things about my view on innovation is that it’s not the sole domain of the engineers, researchers and technologists. My definition of innovation might invite a bit of controversy, but it allows me to extend it to everyone and every function in an organization. There are no boundaries that limit where innovation can take place. The faster you get people focused on problem-solving and in the mindset of “seizing opportunities,” the more effective you will be at pushing fear out the door in favor of value creating activities. It’s time to push the “GO” button on your innovation machine.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:12-05:00March 22nd, 2009|Leadership, Leadership Caffeine|4 Comments

Inspiration and Hope: Encouraging Sound Bites in a Challenging World

There’s enough negative going around. Here’s a few worth reading that will leave you thinking and maybe even feeling a bit more upbeat. Students of strategy and performance excellence might want to take a closer look at how McDonald’s is using leadership, strategy, customer relations and information to successfully beat back the economic doldrums. And for an extended dose of hope and encouragement, check out the March issue of Fast Company, where the focus is on the world’s most innovative companies.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:12-05:00March 10th, 2009|Decision-Making, Leadership, Strategy|0 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™ for the Week of March 8, 2009

Welcome back for this week’s double-shot of leadership motivation. I’m taking my leadership cues this week from Michael Beers, a Harvard Professor with a forthcoming book: High Commitment, High Performance: How to Build a Resilient Organization for Sustained Advantage. While I’m not certain that a Harvard Professor is the first one that I seek out to help me lead my way out of a crisis, I like what he has to say. Mr. Beer’s focus is on building high performance teams and organizations on the back of what he describes as high commitment leaders.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:12-05:00March 8th, 2009|Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leading Change|0 Comments

The Right Stuff: Sprinting Towards the Future

It’s easy to focus on the bad news. Everyone’s talking about it. We’re bombarded with news flashes and human disaster stories as the layoffs mount and the foreclosures climb. And make no doubt about it, these are tough times, but let’s start giving some coverage to the firms, leaders and entrepreneurs that have turned off the news channels and are too busy building or rebuilding to worry about the dire forecasts. For a good dose of “can do” spirit, get out of your office and go talk with some smart people working to strengthen, build or start businesses. I’m doing just that, and here's why I continue to be optimistic:

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:13-05:00February 20th, 2009|Leadership, Leading Change|1 Comment

Redefining Your Industry Landscape in an Economic Hurricane

As companies teeter or plunge over the brink, you will be faced with a host of remarkable opportunities and complex decisions. One of the greatest opportunities is for you to develop programs to capture the nervous customers of your competitors, who are most concerned about continuity in their supply/service chains.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:17-05:00December 16th, 2008|Strategy|1 Comment

The Counterintuitive Nature of Management Excellence

It takes no management skill whatsoever to spend a fortune building up clicks and it definitely takes no skill to slash budgets, cut headcount, freeze programs and hunker down and wait out the storm. It does take remarkable management courage and skill to run against the crowd and conventional wisdom by investing in strategic initiatives and talent during tough times and resisting the temptation to chase mythical fortunes during boom times.

By Art Petty|2008-12-02T09:35:41-06:00December 2nd, 2008|Leadership, Leading Change, Marketing, Product Management, Project Management|2 Comments

Management Excellence Tips for Tough Times: Rethinking Customer Segmentation

Rethinking your customer segmentation model is a potentially powerful approach for differentiating versus key competitors and for finding new needs that you can fulfill with your core capabilities. Experiment with the various ideas and strengthen your team's execution skills in the process. In additional to the potential tremendous upside from solving customer problems, the energy and excitement generated during this process will convert the organization's "sense of fear" into a "sense of urgency."

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:18-05:00December 1st, 2008|Leadership, Marketing, Strategy|0 Comments

Change or Die

Perhaps it is human nature, but we tend to eschew change either in our personal habits or in business settings until we are faced with mortality. In organizations, most significant change occurs during times of crisis when the threat of extinction sufficiently motivates individuals and groups to consider changing long-standing ways of doing things. The crisis brings into stark focus the fact that it is easier and less costly to accept or embrace change than it is to suddenly become extinct. Unfortunately, by the time this clarity is achieved at the top leadership levels, it is often too late.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:19-05:00November 10th, 2008|Leadership, Leading Change|0 Comments