Jane Carter is the CEO of a 150-person, 5-year-old technology company that has been growing at a 20% rate each year. About one year ago, they recruited John, a star sales guy, to work for Bob, V.P. of Sales. John is a true rainmaker. He has boosted sales numbers and the whole company knows and Read More >
Execution
How to Handle Resistance to Change
In any organization, there are people who are opposed to change in any form. They have worked within a specific structure for years and sometimes have even helped to create that structure. They are either passively or actively opposed to structural or policy change, feeling it may affect their job security or their authority. An Read More >
Why Good Companies Fail (It’s Not the Economy)
Since 2008, many businesses have struggled to recover from the “Great Recession.” But as many companies have emerged from that slump, they’ve noticed a change in the economic tide; what they once thought was an endless supply of opportunity and revenue seems to be slowing to a trickle — and they have to work harder Read More >
Effective Leadership is Not a Popularity Contest
One of the most widely used methods for feedback is the “360 degree assessment,” especially for new and developing executives. This assessment is popular because it takes into the account the evaluations of your employees, peers and superiors, and provides valid indicators and predictors of your effectiveness as a leader. This information is also potentially Read More >
Keys to Great Execution
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” – Robert Burns – Working with senior executives across industries, whether they work for small business or Fortune 500 companies, I’ve realized there is one main thing that separates top performers: execution. The most common theme I’ve heard from top performing executives is that they Read More >
4 Steps to Meeting Long-term Goals with Short-Term Tasks
Managing a team of employees is never simple, even when everything is going great. One thing many executives find is that their long-term vision for the company is often hindered by the lack of day-to-day direction. You can’t get from A to Z without connecting to every point in between, but sometimes teams get so Read More >
Encourage Productivity – Not Busyness
“I’m just so busy.” “It’s like my to-do list never ends!” “I’ve been so busy doing this other project, I forgot to contact that client!” How many times, as an executive, have you heard those words from someone on your team – or even yourself? While most of us fall into the trap of “being Read More >
Strategies without Execution: Real-life Hauntings
They say that if you can dream it, you can achieve it. I’ll take this a step further by saying that if you can achieve it, you likely dreamed it up as well; and a recent HBR study proves that’s true. According to the results, 62% of great strategists are also great executors, while 73 percent of Read More >
7 Steps to Selling to Top Executives
Open your browser and Google “close sale with executives.” What you will find are lengthy and involved instructional articles, and maybe even something along the lines of “62 Sales Tips…” But, I assure you it does not take 62 tips to make the tough sale. It takes 7, and here they are: Adjust your attitude. Read More >
Energizers vs. Zappers – A Key to High Performance
Psychology Today refers to them as energy vampires or energy suckers. We all likely know one, and have most likely worked with one as well. They are the generally unhappy people with negative attitudes who seem to suck all the positive energy out of every situation. Energy Zappers, as we’ll call them here, impact our Read More >