I was recently watching high school wrestling, and I got really curious about how different coaches worked with their wrestlers. One coach was very directive. While the match was in progress, he’d shout instructions to his wrestlers. “Break his grip! Get your belly off the mat! Go for his leg!” Then, after each match, he’d…
In human affairs, the distance between the leaders and the average is a constant. If leadership performance is high, the average will go up. The effective executive knows that it is easier to raise one leader’s performance than to raise the performance of a whole mass. ~ Peter Drucker in The Effective Executive Leaders I…
The effective executive knows that to get strength, one has to put up with weaknesses. ~ Peter Drucker in The Effective Executive Kicking off an assignment with a new client, I casually ask, “Tell me about your team…” What comes back is a string of complaints. “They rarely come to a meeting prepared; I don’t…
When I was getting started with my own business I maxim that I heard often was, “Hire slow, fire fast.” At first I heard it as, “Be slow to add costs to your business, but if things turn south, be quick to cut costs.” But as I’ve spent more time hiring and leading teams I’ve…
One of the things that I told my children when I was teaching them to drive is it better to make small adjustments to the steering wheel than big ones, particularly when you’re driving fast! Big adjustments to the steering wheel can make the car feel and act unstable. The same is true in your…
In the US, we have this concept of earning vacation time. Your HR system accrues so much vacation time for every pay period. It does that for accounting reasons. I’m not saying that’s “wrong” – it’s just a misunderstanding of time-off. When we work hard, we deplete ourselves. That’s why, no matter how engaged you…
Sorry I missed talking with you all last week. It’s not that I didn’t have things to share with you; I’ve got some good stuff brewing. Neither is it that I don’t care about you or prioritize this conversation. I was simply taking some time off to have fun! I could have scrambled around the…
I’ve made a solid plan, considered every angle, and committed myself to the actions I need to take to execute the plan. I’m seeing progress, and there are signs of hope, but I haven’t seen things “turn the corner.” It will get really stressful around here if things don’t improve soon. I need to see…
Would you rather have a thousand leads or ten good leads? How about a hundred candidates for your open position, or two perfect candidates? Do you want to create fifty logos for your customer’s rebrand or one great one? In each of these cases, the answer is easy – no one wants quantity; we want quality….
You’ve got an underperforming team member, and it’s been bugging you for a while. Maybe you’ve addressed it with her, and perhaps you’ve just been hinting around, but it’s gotten to the point where you need to do something about it. If you don’t, it’s hard to see how they are a part of your…