How Company Conflict Creates Great Relationships
Conflict, which is a state of opposition between people or ideas or interests, can be one of the most effective processes for gaining agreement, alignment, and taking action that matters, as well as building great relationships. However, this only works if it’s done well. So many people, teams, and organizations are conflict-averse for good reason:...
Too Many Priorities Equals Poor Decision-Making
How quickly can you and the top members of your team give a consistent response to this question: What are the top three priorities for this quarter and this year? When I ask this question, I often get a long silence and then a recitation of seven to fifteen responses from the leader I’m talking...
Strategic Planning Checklist for Leadership Success
If your strategic planning process and meetings are not highly engaging, energizing, clarifying, focusing, and aligning your team… you’re doing it wrong. Strategic planning, done well, should be one of the most dynamic and even enjoyable meetings of the minds. It should accelerate a leadership team’s ability to come together to clearly and concisely conclude...
3 Key Questions to Create Success and Maximize Impact
A critical key to success you and your organization is to ask three high value questions that are most important to get clear answers to. It is also critically important to not just understand and apply the 3 questions, but to appreciate the order in which you need to ask them. Question #1: If you...
How to Rebuild Trust as a Leader
I think you’ll agree with me on this one… Trust is an absolutely essential foundation of any great relationship. A breakdown of trust is one of the most significant reasons a group, team, or organization under-performs, or even fails. Eroded trust undermines the best goals, and renders mission statements and customer service promises lame. It...
4 Levels of Leadership Decision-Making
The 4 Levels of Leadership Decision Making framework allows leaders – and those who need to influence their clients, colleagues, and teams – to be far more effective, with far greater ease. When it comes to better decision-making processes and skills, understanding how people think, evaluate and decide is immensely valuable. Your ability to be...
The Greatest Sources of Miscommunication in Client Relationships
When I ask skilled technical and service professionals and leaders what their single biggest challenge is, I almost always get the same response: “My clients.” For more than 25 years, I’ve been asking top-notch leaders, managers and professionals from all around the world this same question. Whether they see themselves on the technology, marketing, consulting,...
The Leadership Decision-Making Process
What drives your decision-making process – and how do you engage the rest of your organization to be fully on board? One of our associates was leading a planning session with the C-Suite of a television production company. Early in the session, we asked everyone to write down their growth goals for the coming year....
The Difference Between Vision and Mission
The difference between Vision and Mission is the difference between what you stand for — and where you are in relation to that stance. Christos M. Cotsakos, the former Chairman and CEO of E*TRADE used to have a quote from Winnie the Pooh on his reminder board: “Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump,...