Blog
Change Initiatives Don’t Have to Fail
Pundits assert that change initiatives are highly likely to under-achieve their stated goals. They also tell us any number of reasons why initiatives fail. IntelliVen-U’s executive course teaches the exact opposite. The Strategic Leadership Immersion Program: Manage to Lead using the Seven Truths, which provides a plan of action and tools that will make any change happen … Continue reading Change Initiatives Don’t Have to Fail
Plan to Perform and Grow
Leadership teams that are on track to reach their potential to perform and grow have: A written, board-approved financial plan that shows revenue, direct costs, gross margin, indirect costs by function (e.g., marketing, sales, HR, R&D, etc.), and operating profit (i.e., EBITDA), by month and quarter for the year. Approved financial plans tend to have the following characteristics: … Continue reading Plan to Perform and Grow
Crisis Prep
You smell smoke. Then come flames! You run into the front yard and turn to look at your home with fear and dread. Now imagine your local, rookie fireman appears on the scene to fight your fire having only ever trained online with no real field-simulation experience! Firemen train by fighting real fires in a controlled … Continue reading Crisis Prep
Federal Sales
The best federal sales executives find that just three things lead to more wins than losses: Excellent client relationship. A number one or two ranked technical proposal. A price within 2-3% of the lowest bidder. A well thought out, implementable selling system should assure these three tenets are in place. That is what it takes … Continue reading Federal Sales
CEO Role
Every organization has, or needs, a leader. And it is true that the power of one committed, clear person can make all the difference in the world. But no one individual, even the greatest leader, does anything of much significance alone. The best leaders know that it is not all about them. It is about … Continue reading CEO Role
Leader Exit
At an as yet unspecified time in the near future, the revered leader of a high-functioning team must exit, due to age, health, opportunity, or some other compelling reason. The way the team sees it, the exiting leader must bring in a new leader or anoint someone from within, though no team member is clearly the … Continue reading Leader Exit
Quitting Benefits
Most people have no idea to what they are entitled when and if they quit their job. AboutUnemployment.org demystifies the rules relating to benefit entitlement upon employee-initiated termination in their article: Can You Collect Unemployment If You Quit?. Good cause If you are laid off or made redundant, you are eligible for unemployment benefits. In the … Continue reading Quitting Benefits
At Your Service
Service business ideas are a dime-a-dozen. The question is: Which ones will be successful?” One way to find out is to implement the idea. Another is to do the math before taking even the first step. Watch this comic scene from Opportunity Knocks in which a businessman uses careful logic as he stumbles into a … Continue reading At Your Service
Equity Rules
One of the hardest things for an owner/founder/operator to do is motivate others to perform and grow to their full potential. Watch how the pride and endurance of a race horse transforms a struggling team into winners in this inspiring scene from Seabiscuit. Equity models are strategic because: “Who gets What” defines “Who You Are!” That is, the … Continue reading Equity Rules
Profits Interest vs Options
Do you wonder what is the easiest, least expensive, and most flexible approach an owner/founder/operator can use to attract and motivate top talent? This post introduces Mark C Bronfman’s article on using Profits Interests vs Options to install simple, flexible, and highly effective executive incentive plans. Profits Interest and why we need it Founders who still … Continue reading Profits Interest vs Options
How a new skill becomes core to leadership.
A new competence integrates into a leader’s skill set in a three-stage sequence. It was true for Information Technology (IT) competence over the past 60 years. It is proving true again for Organization Development (OD) competence. It will be true again for DEI competence. (Excerpted from the Get Loose Chapter of “Manage to Lead: Seven … Continue reading How a new skill becomes core to leadership.
How to develop leaders, teams, and organizations that perform to their potential.
If you’ve been in charge for a while and it feels like performance and growth are not where you want them to be, you probably know that you are likely headed in the wrong direction. Every leader, team, and organization eventually hits an inflection point. There IS a solution. The first step is to take … Continue reading How to develop leaders, teams, and organizations that perform to their potential.