Unless you're in a start-up or small business, it's impossible to have everyone in the firm physically "in-the-room" for strategy sessions. However, using a strategy-as-a-continuous-process approach, it is possible and desirable to involve everyone in the work of strategy from ideation to execution. But first, you've got to re-plumb the trickle-down strategy process approach to something significantly more inclusive.
While there’s no one-formula-fits-all recipe for career success, there are common ingredients in the form of behaviors and skills. Here are the six base ingredients I see most often, albeit in different proportions
It’s great to be busy, but excessive busyness comes from a flawed approach to your situation. Assert control over your priorities and time, and quit letting the lower priority items rent space in your mind. Here are 8 ideas to help:
I’ve long believed learning to lead in the gray-zone inside organizations is a great approach for creating value, standing out, and getting ahead in your career. Here are 10 tips to help you tackle those vexing issues no one owns, by cultivating support and helping others succeed.
The best partnerships in my experience involve deep integration of business processes, including development, sales and marketing, and customer service, all aligned around a clear audience and strategy. Inherent in this process is the need for you to invest time and money, for people, product, promotion, and programs.
Develop a reputation as someone everyone can count on to tackle the big, ugly issues, and watch the doors open. Of course, it pays to have a strategy to avoid the traps while stepping up to solving or fixing the problems others actively avoid. Here are 4 approaches to help:
Feedback is an important tool for managers to promote high performance and performance improvement. However, when the flow of feedback exceeds a person's ability to process and act on it, the results include stress and disengagement. Here are ideas to help managers tailor their feedback volume and frequency to the needs and styles of their team members.
Of all of the monsters lurking in the dark and keeping us from moving forward or onward to new career adventures, fear is the most potent. Kicking fear to the curb through deliberate action is key to overcoming the gravitational pull it exerts on our lives and careers.
The work of new manager development in our organizations is mostly messy. If you're the new manager, that's a problem. Ditto for the promoting manager. Here are three questions to help new managers gain critical context for their challenging new roles:
People do their best work when they have context for their labors. Here are three discussions managers should be having with their team members to promote performance and stimulate career growth.
