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:
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.
Anyone who has invested time in renovating an older home understands surprises and conundrums emerge every time a wall or ceiling is breached. There are parallels in the world of management where the twists and turns of the marketplace demand change. Great tradespeople and great managers find a way through wicked problems using creativity and critical thinking. Here are seven lessons I was reminded of during a recent renovation project.
Not talking about the right issues at the right time closes off access to an unknown series of potentially game-changing outcomes. It's like closing the door on your future as a firm and your career as a manager.
There’s a loud ring of truth to the old saw: “Culture eats strategy for lunch.” However, sometimes, the culture needs to evolve, or everyone is at risk of ending up hungry at lunchtime.
The struggle over the big decisions is the inherent ambiguity. The unknowns are overwhelming. Fear of getting it wrong floods our minds and our brains struggle for traction in the muck. Nonetheless, these are the times when you have to stand up and cut through the fog of ambiguity.
The gravitational pull of the status quo is powerful in every organization. It takes rebels and rebellion to change. While breaking the rules always comes with risk, learning to guide others through constructive rule-breaking in pursuit of needed changes is a great way to grow your success.
In my experience, most strategy discussions go sideways. After all, they are typically about change and we're wired to fear and resist change. There are however some practices you can adopt to help strengthen the quality of these essential and sometimes existential discussions. Here are 5:
There's ample science to conclude that we're lousy at multi-tasking and alternatively, that taking time to reflect improves our self-efficacy and ability to learn. Unfortunately, most of us work in and contribute to a perpetual tornado of activities in our daily lives. It's imperative for your well-being and effectiveness to find opportunities to simply pause and think deeply.
