How many people do you know wake up in the morning planning on being ineffective in their job? I haven’t met a manager or executive who doesn’t want to be seen as an effective leader. Yet, we all know there are some people who just seem to get more out of their employees than other Read More >
Execution
Why Partnership Fail and Steps to Prevent Failure
By Carl Robinson, Ph.D. Partnerships are breeding grounds for conflict because everyone is a chief, or thinks they are. That’s just one of the reasons many partnerships end up failing. Partnerships form with the best of intentions. They fail for a variety of preventable reasons. Partnerships generally form for three basic reasons: 1) A few 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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
Dealing with a Prima Donna Employee
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 >
6 Steps to Develop a Powerful Leadership Team
The leadership team is one of the most important components of an organization, if not the most important. Collectively, members of this group determine where the organization is going and how it is going to get there. Yet, the percentage of leadership teams operating at dysfunctional levels is staggering. In 2007, 42 percent of senior leadership teams were considered dysfunctional. Read More >