Destiny is not a matter of
chance; it is a matter of
choice.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

ARE YOU DRIVEN
TO CONSTANTLY IMPROVE?

You’ve come to the right place.

Here you’ll find models, methods, practices, and processes
to help you develop the right focus, create the right environment,
build the right team, and embody the right commitment.
To get the right results.

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Categories Commitment

Believe

The New Year. It brings promise, ambition, energy, resolve. It’s a time for commitment. And to be intensively committed you have to believe.

Not just believe in the result, but believe that you can and will do the things necessary to achieve the result. That you’ll do what you know you should do even when you don’t feel like doing it. That you’ll resist distraction and diversion, and keep focused on the prize. That you’ll make the extra effort after the others have gone home. That you’ll turn it around if things are going poorly. And that you’ll fight complacency if things are going well.

The power of belief isn’t that belief creates reality. It’s that belief creates the confidence that you’ll consistently take action to create the reality you want. It was Muhammad Ali who said that when belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

How deep is your conviction? Do you believe this is your year to shine?

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Focus

Reflect

If there’s one activity that sets strategic leaders apart, it’s that they regularly reflect.

Beyond managing the whirlwind of the day-to-day, they reflect on how the world is changing. How the market environment is changing. What it means for their organization. What their long-term goals should be. How their actions today are supporting those goals. What they must change to achieve them.

Strategic leaders realize the limitations of managing exclusively to the day-to-day. They fear becoming effective and efficient at what is increasingly irrelevant.

Take time to think. Look beyond the whirlwind while you’re riding the whirlwind.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Focus

What Do You Do?

Last week I covered why most Mission Statements are meaningless. So while I no longer believe in Mission Statements (or Vision Statements), here’s what I do believe in.

Whether it’s a networking event, a trade show or a social encounter, when you tell someone the name of your organization they always ask the same question: What do you do? And they want you to tell them in one, simple, easy-to-understand statement the essence of what your organization does.

When you want your people focused and motivated, looking beyond their day-to-day jobs, understanding the big picture, you have to continually convey one thing: What winning looks like.

What We Do and Winning are positioning statements. And good positioning statements have these elements:

1) Purposeful. They’re crafted with a particular audience and objective in mind.

2) Memorable. To be effective they have to be memorable and to be memorable they have to be concise. And not just a mash-up of overused words.

3) Conversational. The intent isn’t to end the conversation it’s to engage the conversation. Your statement should naturally lead to follow-up questions: How do you do that? What markets do you serve?

Yes, you should have positioning statements. Just don’t default to meaningless missions and vacuous visions.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Focus

Mission Forgettable

Quick, what’s your mission statement?

Bet you struggled with that, didn’t you? You’re in good company. Most leaders struggle to remember their mission statements. Why? Many are simply too long. One of our clients had a mission statement that was … drum roll please … 247 words long! How could you remember that? How could you possibly align your organization around a 247-word mission statement?

Even if they’re not too long, too many mission statements sound hollow. They recycle the same generic words. Superior value … blah, blah, blah … customer focus … blah, blah, blah … solutions … blah, blah, blah. All nice words, but they don’t say what you do, what business you’re in.

Your mission statement is supposedly the most important statement in your company. If you can’t remember it or if you wouldn’t use it in a real-life conversation, then get rid of it. If you don’t, your employees will think it’s a joke.

But without a mission statement, how do you convey what your company does, what it stands for, and where it’s headed? That’s the topic of next week’s blog.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Team

Why You Need Outside Expertise

Successful leaders are smart enough to know that they’re not smart enough to know it all. And neither are their employees. So they surround themselves with a network of external resources who are vital to their success.

That was one of the main conclusions from The Breakthrough Company, by Keith McFarland. McFarland and his team looked at over 7000 fast-growing, mid-sized companies to determine which ones sustained strong growth, which ones stalled, and why.

Nine companies were identified as breakthrough companies. A common practice of those companies is that they regularly used external resources like advisory boards, customer councils, industry experts and consultants, and that they had high expectations of them.

Breakthrough companies are open to and value outside expertise. Non-breakthrough companies are more insular and don’t value outside partnerships as much.

Access the resources you need to access. It doesn’t matter if they’re not employees. What matters is if they can help you win.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Environment

The #1 Reason You Hold People Accountable

Holding people accountable. The part of business that so many leaders struggle with. Why? It’s uncomfortable; it’s conflict. So we try to avoid it by rationalizing to ourselves. Maybe if I give it more time it will get better. (Sorry, it won’t.) I’ll never find someone to replace them. (Wrong, you will.)

Here’s the paradox: The number one reason you have to hold people accountable has nothing to do with those few people. It’s so you don’t de-motivate and demoralize everyone else. Everyone who bought into the dream and is driving to make it happen. It’s those people who get frustrated when you don’t hold someone accountable. Why isn’t that person getting the job done? Why aren’t you holding that person accountable? Wait, it gets worse. Because now they question their commitment. Why should I work so hard when you don’t care enough to hold that person accountable? Maybe you’re not that committed.

Congratulations. You’ve now de-motivated the many because you won’t deal with the few.

The next time you find yourself avoiding an accountability discussion – and you’ll know it – ask yourself: By not dealing with this, what is the effect I’m having on everyone else?

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Environment

Positive Pressure

He was the first of my college football teammates to die. A hulking lineman, he had struggled with weight in recent years. But then, the competitor he was, he got serious and started losing it. Still, he dropped dead of a heart attack at 51.

So when another former teammate, a linebacker, showed up at a game weighing 280 pounds, I decided to apply positive pressure. “Mike,” I said, “we’ve just lost one teammate, we don’t want to lose another. You’re going to lose some weight.” He agreed. And then we negotiated: How much would he have to lose? Fifty pounds. By when? Within one year. And how much would he have to contribute to the Alumni Football Association if he didn’t? $2,000.

One year later, before the start of another game, a group of us gathered around a scale. Mike stepped up … 55 pounds lighter than the year before. Victory!

When there’s no pressure – self-induced or otherwise – there’s nothing to respond to. Your will atrophies. It’s like floating in a zero-gravity environment; your muscles and bones aren’t challenged so they deteriorate.

Positive pressure is good. It means challenging people. To achieve a goal they believe in. Letting them know you believe in them. Letting them know there are consequences. And most importantly, letting them know you care.

Exert positive pressure.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Focus

And the Winner in a Landslide Is …

Intelligence – the collection, analysis and utilization of detailed information about voters. That was the real winner in the just-completed U.S. elections. While the pundits were relying on their usual tools – gut instinct, perceived momentum and political catchphrases – the polling aggregators were using extensive polling data and statistical models to make their forecasts.

Back in June, Drew Linzer, one of the best-known aggregators (votamatic.org) predicted the electoral college results: Obama 332, Romney 206. Asked for his prediction after the supposedly race-altering first presidential debate, he said no change. And the actual results after all the electoral votes were counted? Obama 332, Romney 206.

Understanding your target audience is one thing. Influencing their behavior is another. Micro-targeting is the key. Campaigns try not to waste resources influencing people unlikely to vote for their candidates. They focus on connecting with targeted segments in creative ways. Like the Obama campaign placing early-vote reminder ads in video games since having a teenager in a household predicted support for their candidate. And geographically targeting the most identified-with Hollywood celebrities to host dinners for eliciting donations from 40-49 year old females (George Clooney on the West Coast, Sarah Jessica Parker on the East Coast).

The point? How do you collect, analyze and utilize information to influence your target segments? Do you rely simply on gut instinct and conventional wisdom about your industry? Or do you take a more sophisticated, systematic approach? Are you micro-targeting? When all is said and done, are you doing the right things to win?

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Environment

Your One Best Question

A critical meeting. You want your people intensively engaged. Totally present, focused, and deeply processing the issue. So how can you tell if they’re giving you their best? Here’s one way:

At the start of the meeting state that you expect each of them, at some point, to ask their one best question. An incisive question that reflects a deep understanding of the issue or deep insight into its implications. If they come up with a conclusion or recommendation, they should word it as a question. Tell them you’ll be evaluating their one best questions.

Give them feedback. Recognize those whose questions are outstanding. Challenge those whose questions are not. Push them to think deeply.

If it’s that important and you need their best, then expect their best. One question. Their one best question.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Focus

Do Less … Believe Me Yet?

Last week I wrote about doing less, taking longer and using more resources. Crazy, right?

So let’s try again. Here’s what some guy named Tim had to say:

We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small; so we can put enormous energy behind them.       Tim Cook, CEO Apple

Hmmm, I wonder what his former boss would have thought.

I‚Äôm as proud of what we don‚Äôt do as I am of what we do.        Steve Jobs

Do less, do less, do less. You can’t do it all. Trying to do it all harms it all. Do less and you’ll accomplish more.

Getting tired of this tune? OK, how about this tune:

It‚Äôs not the notes you play; it‚Äôs the notes you don‚Äôt play.         Miles Davis

Now there’s a chart-topper. Do less.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Focus, Environment

Do Less, Take Longer, Use More Resources

As a strategy + execution consultant I review a lot of strategic plans. I assess a lot of strategic results. And in most cases, the results are underwhelming.

Why? Every organization I have ever worked with takes on too much. Too many objectives, too many strategies and too many other projects. And for some reason, everything apparently needs to start immediately. Oh, and who needs to get it done? Of course, the usual cadre of already insanely busy, get-it-done types.

So what’s the solution?

Do less, take longer, use more resources.

What??? What kind of counter-intuitive, capitulating leadership mantra is that?

Depending on your history, it might be the right one. If your track record is one of being over-ambitious and not meeting those ambitions, then your track record is failure. Which means people come to expect failure. To break that paradigm, you need to create the conditions for success.

That doesn’t mean the goal is to accomplish whatever, whenever with how-much-of-ever. It means reflecting on the past and recalibrating your thinking: what can realistically get done by when given available resources and the myriad of other demands?

Do less, take longer, use more resources. The payoff? Better results.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Categories Commitment

The Deceit of Inconsistency

We want to believe. When someone accomplishes the extraordinary, through extreme struggle against crushing odds, we’re deeply moved by their spirit. We feel triumphant for their success.

We want to believe.

Which is why it’s devastating when someone who we have believed in turns out not to be who they seemed.

Like with Lance.

His story of course is tremendously inspiring. His battle with testicular, lung and brain cancer. Facing poor odds of survival. Overcoming his cancer through surgery, chemo and an intense will. His unparalleled, seven consecutive Tour de France triumphs. The half-a-billion dollars raised through his LiveStrong foundation. If ever there were an inspiring story, this was it.

And now we feel deceived. Disheartened. Yes, his foundation still does a tremendous amount of good. And, yes, he is not alone in the cycling world to have been judged guilty of cheating. But we held him to a higher standard. Because he so forcefully claimed to hold himself to a higher standard. Yet his character, it seems, is inconsistent with his claims.

You have been entrusted as a leader. Be very mindful of what you say and what you do. Your credibility, your effectiveness, your legacy is at stake.

Your thoughts?

Michael

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