Your organization is not functioning in isolation. It functions within an economy, industry, and geographical area that influence the opportunities and challenges it faces. To be effective, it is essential to be able to diagnose accurately the cause behind the symptoms of any hardship. Thus, it requires a macro or “big picture” perspective of the market served, as well as a …
Usually I am smart enough to refrain from commenting on local issues, particularly those with so much inflammatory potential, but this particular incident is so ripe with leadership wrongs I just couldn’t remain silent. My only disclaimer is I realize this is my opinion and I hope to spark a conversation, not a monologue. As …
Clearly the question is no longer, “Do we need to change?” It is: “How do we know when we need to change?” As challenging as it is to wrap our minds around all the moving parts of the market, technology, and the economy, the hardest part is to decide when to make dramatic changes to the business. Unfortunately, far too …
The Change Starts With You One of the powerful truths of leadership is that the leader has the ability to influence others that goes beyond their authoritative power. If the desired organizational behavior is not evident, the first place to look is in the mirror. What signals are you sending through your behaviors, the questions you ask, the expectations you …
The challenge in many industries is that there are many providers offering essentially the same solutions. Banks and law firms are often hard to differentiate—they tend to provide the same or similar services, target the same customers and industries, and compete based on the same strengths. Banks talk about customer service and lawyers focus on …
Economic cycles are just that—cycles. During a recent economic forecast presentation, Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics, shared a chart that shows US Industry Production to Gross Domestic Product has dropped below zero four times in recent history: in 1982 (-7.1 percent), 1991 (-3.1 percent), 2001 (-5.3 percent) and 2009 (-14.6 percent). Certainly the challenges of 2009 have not been rivaled throughout …
On an online chat forum for business travelers, the question of how hotels respond to online criticisms was raised. What do travelers do if their complaints receive a generic response? Most agreed they just don’t return to the hotel—a passive response and the hotel may never know they just lost a customer through their action, or rather, lack thereof. A …
Far too many businesses don’t realize they need to shake things up until they are already in decline. It may seem counter intuitive, but when your business has seen multiple years of double-digit growth and has hit record revenue and profits—that is the best time to begin thinking about the next big breakthrough. Great growth requires an inquisitive leader …
Takes 2 minutes, costs nothing and will make you better at almost anything. What is it? Recently I had the good fortune to meet Marshall Goldsmith, author of What Got You There, Won’t Get You Here. He is known worldwide as a leadership coach. Here are a few of the insights he shared: 1. His …
Broken computers and plumbing are things I rarely tackle myself. But it is getting easier to try to do research online to see if it is a repair we can do ourselves. A magazine I read has a feature called “Ask the Repairman” and he will explain what is needed for different kinds of repairs …
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