Archive for January, 2010

Your Strategic Direction Must Be Well-Grounded

January 25th, 2010

It’s impor­tant to have ambi­tious, lofty goals that inspire you and your team.  You should want to be the best at what you do.  And with the right strat­egy, actions, and per­sis­tent focus, you cer­tainly can be. 

Business Plan_sm

At the same time, an ambi­tious vision must be grounded in real­ity.  You must have a clear under­stand­ing of your strengths, weak­nesses, and the oper­at­ing con­di­tions that influ­ence a defin­i­tive plan of action tai­lored to fit your team.  It should also be a plan that, over time, puts in place all the nec­es­sary ingre­di­ents to achieve your long-term vision.  It’s okay to swim upstream against the cur­rent, but you can­not exe­cute what you aren’t or what the mar­ket won’t give you.

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Begin With a Clear Vision

January 18th, 2010

VisionMost every­one knows that orga­ni­za­tions need a vision and mis­sion state­ment.  But for many, they are no more than words on paper, an annual strate­gic exer­cise that is done and then for­got­ten, or a slo­gan that no one oper­ates by.

Your vision must direct the way you run your busi­ness every day, all the time.  It is the key that will guide your strate­gic deci­sions and the spe­cific actions that fol­low.  It must be spe­cific, mean­ing­ful, and rep­re­sent a wor­thy pur­pose that you and your team can embrace and be pas­sion­ate about exe­cut­ing and achieving.

This applies to indi­vid­u­als, too. The objec­tive is to live an inten­tional life, accom­plish­ing what’s impor­tant to you.  If you can envi­sion where you want to go, then you can achieve it.

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Be Part of the Solution

January 11th, 2010

Working TogetherIn times of stress our “com­plain meter” can eas­ily rise.  Things big and small annoy us, but com­plain­ing only increases our frus­tra­tion and does lit­tle to resolve issues.  This is when lead­er­ship skills really pay off, and being a leader isn’t just the province of CEO’s.  We can all make a dif­fer­ence in resolv­ing issues or improv­ing dys­func­tional sit­u­a­tions when we pos­i­tively lead oth­ers and our­selves to the right solutions.

This process is not rocket sci­ence.  In many ways it’s related to work­ing more effec­tively with oth­ers as a team.  We have all heard the expres­sion “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”  But over time, our com­plain­ing can work against us, shut­ting us out of con­tribut­ing to the solu­tion.  We can get more done by con­struc­tively par­tic­i­pat­ing in change rather than being a roadblock.

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It’s Time to Look Back

January 4th, 2010

The abil­ity to look for­ward is a great attribute for man­agers and lead­ers.  A clear vision and pur­pose­ful direc­tion ener­gizes your team and builds pos­i­tive momen­tum.  How­ever, no team or busi­ness endeavor works per­fectly.  Mis­takes are made.  Stuff hap­pens.  What do we do about it is the key.

Past Present Future

 

Per­son­ally, I really hate to look back­ward, but it’s nec­es­sary.  The pur­pose is not to beat up on your­self or oth­ers.  Instead, it is to reflect con­struc­tively on what has worked well and what should have worked bet­ter.  Not only is this reflec­tion nec­es­sary for you, but your team also needs to learn from it.

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