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Art of Managing-Kick Mediocrity to the Curb in Pursuit of Extraordinary

May 6, 2013

Mediocre is on display daily in too many areas of our society and in too many of our businesses. From the boss who just doesn’t care to our government seemingly barely functioning to the miserable help-lines of too many firms to the slow gait…the shuffle of retail workers at organizations that definitely don’t care, ordinary and average are epidemic. Here are 8 ideas to help you kick mediocrity to the curb in pursuit of extraordinary on your team:

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Art of Managing: Work is Where the Brain Is

Mar 10, 2013

In the past two weeks there’s been a buzz in the world of business generated by two firms changing longstanding working arrangements. Not incidentally, both firms are fighting for corporate survival. I suspect that the fundamental problems of two firms who no longer exist for completely obvious reasons, have as their root causes, something much deeper than whether butts are in seats behind the same walls every single day.

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Leadership Caffeine™-5 Priceless Lessons from Amundsen and Scott

Feb 17, 2013

In preparation for an upcoming presentation, I’ve become a bit obsessed with studying the 1910 expeditions and race between Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott to 90-degrees South (the South Pole). The lessons for leaders and managers practically leap off the pages of this classic example of coping with risk, uncertainty and volatility. Here are 5 lessons from these remarkable expeditions that you can apply in your work-life today:

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Managers: Show Fear the Door

Feb 14, 2013

Intuitively, one would expect most senior managers to recognize both the delicate state of people’s emotions in this uncertain era and to take some steps to both confront and mitigate this destructive force in the workplace. Based on the survey results, perhaps more than a few managers missed the memo. Here’s your reminder.

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Integrator Leaders-People Who Get Stuff Done

May 26, 2012

Regular readers know my perspective on those who lead without authority. I’m a huge fan. These are the people who turn good businesses great and who power teams with the kinetic energy created by their constant motion.

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Leaders, Tattoo this Causal Relationship on Your Forearms

Feb 22, 2012

I’ve been mildly surprised that the book, Beyond Performance-How Great Organizations Build Competitive Advantage by Scott Keller and Colin Price, hasn’t commanded more attention in mainstream business circles. Perhaps we’ve grown numb to the almost endless number of books purporting to show us the way to sustained success. However, don’t let the existence of 25,000 or so books published on managing change during the past two decades, blind you to some of the important and data-backed conclusions of Beyond Performance. Here are some reasons why this may be one of the more important books you will read this decade:

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Steve Jobs-Walking With Giants

Oct 6, 2011

Twentieth Century Industrialist and the founder of Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita, established a garden outside of the firm's modest headquarters in Osaka, Japan. In this garden, he commissioned and placed statues of his heroes. Fittingly, a giant statue of Thomas...

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Towards Your Growth as a Management Innovator

Aug 29, 2011

One of the exciting parts of living and working through “these interesting times,” comes from the opportunity to apply the tools of management in new ways and forms to today’s complex problems. This “management innovation” as Dr. Gary Hamel describes it, is much about the search for approaches to organizing, planning, leading and controlling that better fit the challenges of the 21st century. The implication is that in many cases, we’re still trying to solve new and emerging problems with 20th century management tools.

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Leadership Caffeine™: Making Time to Glimpse the Future and Re-Think

Apr 11, 2011

As technology finally begins to catch up to our long-standing vision for how it can positively change our work lives and our businesses, it may just be time for us to rethink our stone-age approaches on how we work. If you’ve not pushed yourself to explore the new tools, and if you are responsible in some form or fashion for pushing the envelope on how your firm competes in the market, engages clients and arms its people to win, it might just be time to spend a few minutes focusing on the future.

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