Blog

Revenue Leads Expenses

By Peter DiGiammarino

Most leadership teams know the problem. They set an annual revenue target, build spending around it, and move forward as if the planned revenue inflow is already on its way. If revenue later develops more slowly than hoped, the organization is forced to pull back, delay hires, cut initiatives, and explain why the original plan … Continue reading Revenue Leads Expenses

Before You Build, Get Clear

By Peter DiGiammarino

Before You Build, Get Clear AI makes it easier than ever to build, prototype, and automate. It does not make it any less important to think. When the cost of building drops, the cost of building the wrong thing rises. Remember Peter Drucker’s aphorism that ends wtih “… are you doing the right thing?” That is … Continue reading Before You Build, Get Clear

Finding the CEO for What Comes Next

By Peter DiGiammarino

An IntelliVen Insight by Eric Palmer. AI is not a feature cycle. It is a reset of SaaS economics. Eric Palmer, a highly successful Senior Operating Partner with more than 30 years of experience leading private, public, private equity-owned, and venture-backed companies, recently shared what he is seeing across  software businesses. Eric uses and has … Continue reading Finding the CEO for What Comes Next

Time Horizon Discipline

By Peter DiGiammarino

Leaders often say: “We don’t have enough time.” “We’re far from our goals.” “Everything feels urgent.” Most of the time, the issue is not time. It is a mismatch between the decision and the planning horizon. Manage to Lead is built on clarity and disciplined change. Time horizon discipline is part of that clarity. Different … Continue reading Time Horizon Discipline

When Attention Is the Constraint, Focus the Work and the Reviews

By Peter DiGiammarino

Most things go wrong because leaders are spread too thin, not because the work is impossible. When the volume of initiatives outstrips reviewer capacity, important items get little or no attention. Meetings slip. Mental presence drops. The fix is to match what we take on to the attention we can invest, and to raise the … Continue reading When Attention Is the Constraint, Focus the Work and the Reviews

The Architecture of Resilience: How Early Labor Silences Fear in High-Stakes Leadership

By Peter DiGiammarino

By: Richard Block From a very early age, working was a given. It was simply what you did. In reflecting on these early experiences and contrasting them with the lives of my children and grandchildren, I see a significant divide. The loss isn’t just in the paycheck; it is in the “patterns of behavior” that … Continue reading The Architecture of Resilience: How Early Labor Silences Fear in High-Stakes Leadership

From Tool to Teammate: Six Practices That Make AI Work for Us

By Peter DiGiammarino

At IntelliVen, we work from a defined body of leadership and management practice: the Manage to Lead (MtL) System. It is documented in our text, taught in our classes, and organized into more than sixty tools and templates and 70 insights and tutorials. We use these tools every day with clients and trainees and we are … Continue reading From Tool to Teammate: Six Practices That Make AI Work for Us

When there’s no right answer: get input, get commitment, then decide

By Peter DiGiammarino

Calls about who the team counts on for what are hard. Leaders worry about making valued people feel overlooked or diminished. Direct reports mostly want clarity, fair reasoning, and as much scope and recognition as they can reasonably earn. This post offers a way to handle those tensions: get input one-on-one, secure commitment to support … Continue reading When there’s no right answer: get input, get commitment, then decide

Say the Same Words. Mean the Same Things.

By Peter DiGiammarino

Walk into almost any leadership meeting and you will hear the same words: Vision. Strategy. Mandate. Values. Culture. Everyone nods. Everyone is confident they understand. Then you listen a little longer and realize something important: People are using the same words to mean different things … and different words to mean the same things. That … Continue reading Say the Same Words. Mean the Same Things.

Steering Committees: Engaging Stakeholders for Guidance, Commitment, and Growth

By Peter DiGiammarino

Note: A complementary reading for MtL Module 8 Get Help Leaders who “get help” know success comes not from going it alone but from surrounding themselves with structures that strengthen thinking, accountability, and action. In Manage to Lead, we emphasize the value of an Accountability Board, Advisory Board, Coach, and Peer Group. There is another … Continue reading Steering Committees: Engaging Stakeholders for Guidance, Commitment, and Growth

How to get on track to success with a team member performing poorly.

By Peter DiGiammarino | October 9, 2013

If a team member performing poorly relative to expectation, the team’s leader should first make sure basic tenets for success have been established using best contracting and governance practices. As the team’s leader, ensure that you: Know what the team counts on the team member to do Believe s/he has the ability do it. Want … Continue reading How to get on track to success with a team member performing poorly.

Business Guru Terry Schmidt reviewed Manage to Lead for the Association for Strategic Planning; here’s what he had to say:

By Peter DiGiammarino | September 9, 2013

Review by Terry Schmidt, Management Pro PUBLISHED IN THE ASSOCIATION FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING SEPTEMBER 2013 NEWS LETTER Manage to Lead, by Peter DiGiammarino, presents a structured approach to plan and implement next steps for an organization as it strives for long-term growth and performance. I’m a business author and consultant who has read just about everything … Continue reading Business Guru Terry Schmidt reviewed Manage to Lead for the Association for Strategic Planning; here’s what he had to say:

How to decide what kind of leader to be.

By Peter DiGiammarino | August 2, 2013

As suggested by the illustration in Figure 1, a leader: Sets direction represented in the first panel by the target with a bull’s-eye in the middle. Aligns resources; that is, the leader collects followers who all look to hit the same target. Motivates action, as suggested by the radio bars in the lower corners of the … Continue reading How to decide what kind of leader to be.

Leadership development curriculum content for top executives, and those who aspire to become top executives, is now also available on Amazon.

By Peter DiGiammarino | July 9, 2013

Whether one wants to change personal habits, implement a new information system, improve a business process, get team members to work together, increase a community’s appreciation for diversity, or even to topple a monarchy, taking seven actions driven by seven disarmingly simple truths will individually and collectively help achieve the goal. Manage to Lead: Seven … Continue reading Leadership development curriculum content for top executives, and those who aspire to become top executives, is now also available on Amazon.

How to think about and organize Project, Client, and Offering Managers.

By Peter DiGiammarino | June 22, 2013

Organizations that offer solutions to clients manage: Projects, Clients, and Offerings as suggested in Figure 1. Managing each requires different skills and seeks to achieve different goals as outlined below. Project Managers, see Figure 2, deliver offering value to specific clients on time, on budget, and on target. Project Managers are also counted on to extend and … Continue reading How to think about and organize Project, Client, and Offering Managers.

How a new executive earns respect by listening until s/he can be heard.

By Peter DiGiammarino | May 29, 2013

Most people cannot listen until they have been heard. As a consequence, wise leaders who want to affect thinking and behavior learn to first be a great listener to those they aim to impact. Holding back from jumping-in when a key point comes to mind in the middle of a fast-paced conversation can be a challenge but it … Continue reading How a new executive earns respect by listening until s/he can be heard.

Are we for sale?

By Peter DiGiammarino | May 6, 2013

Being part of a successful start up is invigorating.  Even for those with no equity stake, the energy and excitement is contagious and makes it easy to work hard for the good of the whole. In the face of growth and strong performance, some may begin to wonder if the good times will soon end … Continue reading Are we for sale?

How to test for and secure top team alignment on key matters to improve growth and performance.

By Peter DiGiammarino | May 1, 2013

Leadership teams need to Get Clear about many things, including: What problem their organization solves for whom. What is most important to do differently next. Who to count on for what. Leaders often struggle to reach a good, a better, or even a best solution to countless such questions. More important than the right answer, though, … Continue reading How to test for and secure top team alignment on key matters to improve growth and performance.

Introducing Manage to Lead: Seven Truths to Help You Change the World as an interactive digital workbook.

By Peter DiGiammarino | April 10, 2013

Many intelliven.com blog posts are based on the slides and lecture notes from a masters class in Organization Development called Organization Analysis and Strategy offered at American University and taught by Peter DiGiammarino.  These posts and other material from class, including: Work problems, Templates, Graphics, Slide shows, and Assessments are available  from Amazon as a softcover workbook … Continue reading Introducing Manage to Lead: Seven Truths to Help You Change the World as an interactive digital workbook.

Building a High-Performance Leadership Team: Embracing Depth, Conceptual Thinking, Connectivity, and Drive for Exceptional Results

By Peter DiGiammarino | April 10, 2013

When building a core leadership team target for each team member to be: Deep: Look for an extraordinary depth of competence in a functional or technical area or a methodology that is essential to the organization’s business; Conceptual: The best leaders have an ability to abstract fully-formed concepts from a collection of parts and are able to communicate complex … Continue reading Building a High-Performance Leadership Team: Embracing Depth, Conceptual Thinking, Connectivity, and Drive for Exceptional Results

Announcing: Manage to Lead — Seven Truths to Help You Change the World

By Peter DiGiammarino | March 27, 2013

Whether one wants to change personal habits, implement a new information system, improve a business process, get team members to work together, increase a community’s appreciation for diversity, or even to topple a monarchy, taking seven actions driven by seven disarmingly simple truths will individually and collectively help achieve the goal. Peter DiGiammarino will present a one-hour … Continue reading Announcing: Manage to Lead — Seven Truths to Help You Change the World

How to use the Change Framework to turn initiatives into action.

By Peter DiGiammarino | March 13, 2013

If the leader thinks they know what needs to change and that everyone is aligned, ask: “How do you know your team knows what you want to do? It may be a good idea to ask them to verify. If they all say what you expect them to say, a positive step towards getting what … Continue reading How to use the Change Framework to turn initiatives into action.