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Six Ways to Improve Signal-to-Noise with Roundtables

August 17, 2010 By 1 Comment
Round Table

Our thirst for information is far outpacing our growth in need for money. If you’ve had business success, you already know access to information is critical, so this may not surprise you. But according to U.C. San Diego’s ongoing “How Much Information?” study, the average American’s daily consumption of data – things like phone calls, emails, videos, television shows, tweets, songs, even books, magazines, papers and the like – has ballooned to more than 34 gigabytes per day, up from a still … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advisory Perspective, Restore High Performance Tagged With: , , , ,

Firm But Fair

November 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Performance Management plans create the High Performance you seek.

Lead for any length of time, and you will have an employee interaction or two that haunts you. One of mine involved a defiant worker who outright lied about her actions. Inventory tracking systems logged who accessed valuable company resources by badge and pass code. When presented with evidence of her indiscretions, Lisa (we’ll call her) first insisted someone else must have done it, then claimed she returned everything in better shape, so no harm no foul. Lisa had trouble recognizing she had actually damaged … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Accountability, Restore High Performance

Five Keys to Overcoming Management Overwork

August 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment
optimize your management processes for high performance.

There’s an especially strong theme coming from owners and their executives: the desire to invest smartly in improving business results. Actually, it’s stronger than that. It’s an awakening to the absolute fact that “business as normal” is simply not okay. It’s not okay to struggle and kick and scream and work hard and still produce… fill in the blank for yourself: the same old sales results, a lack of profit, not enough clients, insufficient productivity, a lack of satisfaction, or all of the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Accountability, Issue Discovery, Performance Factors, Reboot Potential, Restore High Performance Tagged With: , , , ,

The Leadership Rabbit Hole

May 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Lacking accountability and performance? Maybe you're in the Leadership Rabbit Hole.

Recently, I had the dubious honor to work with a senior executive who just doesn’t get it. Rodney was V.P. of Marketing for a leading manufacturer of networking technology.  (Or so we’ll say – substitute the leader, politician, or other important person of your choice.)  As such, it is Rodney’s job to create demand for his company’s products.  And yet after months of effort, demand had actually decreased, Rodney’s team became alienated, and the company’s performance suffered as a result of his … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advisory Perspective, Featured, Fix Your Processes, Restore High Performance, Right People Tagged With: , , , ,

Making Business Resolutions Happen

January 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Use Performance Factors to make resolutions stick and High Performance happen.

We are at an interesting time.  A struggling economy is forcing many businesses into creative action to improve their position right at the turn of the year, a time when many naturally resolve to improve and do better any way. While this double whammy of introspection still hasn’t inspired everyone to new levels of action and success, in my own practice, I have definitely noticed an uptick in leaders pulling out all stops and resolving to make 2009 a growth year despite conventional wisdom. So what are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Accountability, Action Planning, Fix Your Processes, Issue Discovery, Performance Factors, Reboot Potential, Restore High Performance Tagged With: , , , ,

Building a Culture of Profitability

December 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Have you established profit as a goal and planned for it? You should...

Every once in a while a product comes a long that makes you shake your head and ask, “But how do they make money?”  This Christmas, one lucky recipient on my list is receiving a telephone device that promises free domestic long distance charges for the life of the unit for no fees beyond the initial purchase price paid by yours truly. That’s an extreme example, but even in companies where the business model is obvious, profit is often elusive.  We struggle to assemble the secret sauce that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Action Planning, Advisory Perspective, Fix Your Processes, Restore High Performance Tagged With: , , ,

A Micromanager’s Guide to Trust, Teamwork, and Communication

October 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Trust, teamwork, and communication are key to making accountability happen.

The unavoidable truth is micromanagement makes us feel better and that’s why we do it.  Like the nicotine in a cigarette, it calms the nervous manager, providing information and visibility into situations where it would otherwise be lacking.  We gain our “hit” of easy information, our twitching eases, and we can move on to something else for a while. The problem is that just like the nicotine in cigarettes comes laden with a cadre of things that will kill you, micromanagement too carries a host of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Accountability, Fix Your Processes, Restore High Performance, Right People, Right Processes Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Managing for Challenging Times

July 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Tough times call for tough management - and lots of focus.

Every economic cycle poses unique challenges, meaning some businesses are hit harder than others, but nobody escapes forever.  Whether it’s election year uncertainties, mortgage meltdowns, credit crises or some other scare, forces simply conspire from time to time to generate a unique blend of self-induced societal hysteria easily rivaling the effects of any Starbucks five-shot venti mocha latte in the blood stream of the average business owner.  In short, it’s easy to be left feeling frazzled, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Accountability, Action Planning, Fix Your Processes, Performance Factors, Restore High Performance Tagged With: , , , , , ,