The cacophony of opinions screamed into the world on social media, in meetings, at conferences, and in classrooms provides ample evidence that it is a human need to be heard. But with all this yelling going on, who is listening? Great leaders have learned to listen carefully to feedback from their staff, their customers, their… Read more »
Business Management Blog
How to Run a Great Meeting
When I open a benchmarking analysis, I always ask, “are there any regular meetings coming up?” I’m interested in unraveling the organization’s communication habits. I want to discern the rhythm of communication in the business and also the quality of the execution. Although organizations should hold different types of meetings (Strategic Meetings, Tactical Meetings, One-on-Ones,… Read more »
Management Meetings*: 3 Dos and a Don’t
The most productive management teams meet weekly for 45-60 minutes for an action oriented discussion of short-term results and plans. They use Action Logs to record commitments and a Parking Lot to track important issues that arise but cannot be dealt with efficiently in the meeting itself. This type of meeting is a “Tactical Management… Read more »
The Year in Review
You may be familiar with the effective “What should we start doing, stop doing, and keep doing?” practice that helps managers learn what worked well and what didn’t in their organizations (and if you weren’t, now you are – it’s a good one). Adding these additional five questions to the beginning of the exercise will… Read more »
Accounting 101: Cash & Profit
This article provides a primer on the difference between cash and profit.
The Coaching Conversation
“If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two tongues and one ear.” – Mark Twain. Michael Bungay Stanier, in his entertaining and easy-to-digest book The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, outlines the formula for asking great questions that allow you to… Read more »
3 Mistakes You’re Probably Making in Leadership Development
One of the most common frustrations business leaders share with us is the difficulty they have developing their managers into leaders. If you share this challenge, consider these questions. What is Leadership? The answer to this basic question is at the heart of many peoples’ failure to display leadership qualities, so try this simple exercise…. Read more »
5 Steps to Developing Great Managers
It’s a classic business error. The best sales person is promoted to management, causing revenues to suffer as they divert attention from making their own sales to performing management activities ineffectively. And it doesn’t just happen in sales. The same scenario plays out: In professional service organizations the most capable engineer begins to manage staff,… Read more »
Break the Procrastination Habit
Everyone experiences it – knowing something needs to be done but finding every possible reason not to do it. Eventually, the deadline looms and we do it – or we don’t, in which case it probably wasn’t that important anyway. Like most business problems, getting out of the rut requires a clear strategy. Here’s how… Read more »
What is Benchmarking?
The word benchmarking means many things to many people. “Benchmarking” evaluates performance by measuring what companies are doing or / and the results they are getting against some predetermined standards. Companies that benchmark can identify best practices and apply them to their own business. The greatest benefit of benchmarking is its ability to introduce a… Read more »