Blog

Page: 6

High-performance organizations and teams depend on accountability. It’s the fuel that great teams run on, and a lack of true accountability is almost always the reason why some organizations underperform. Here’s a definition of accountability we can probably all agree on: Accountability = The obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities, […]

Read

My business partner, Wally Schmader, introduced the “One Question” to me about 10 years ago. We were trying to figure out how to get people to be more strategic about their business plans for the coming year. Every year we would do an elaborate goal-setting meeting, only to have people leave with the same big […]

Read

Hiring excellent leaders and coaches is crucial for any organization that wants to grow and thrive, and finding capable leadership isn’t easy. Bad recruiting decisions are costly, and they’re very easy to make. Hiring an ineffective leader or manager can be a huge setback for a company or department. When we hire an ineffective leader, […]

Read

It’s a fundamental part of leadership, so why aren’t people better at it? Here are a few comments from people that admit to being horrible at delegation: “I can do it better myself anyway” “Sometimes it’s an imposition to ask others to help” “I can do it easier and faster” “It will take too long […]

Read

I was sitting on a plane heading back to Tulsa from a convention in San Diego. I had spoken at a national convention and was reflecting on what I could have done to improve the session I led. As I was reflecting, I overheard a conversation behind me between two strangers attempting to make small talk.  _____ […]

Read

Here is the premise I would ask you to accept: The most impactful thing you can do to improve as a leader is to work directly on your own skills and understanding of leadership. It is not working on the people on your team, not tracking goals and targets, not prioritizing and optimizing…it is working on […]

Read

It always seems to be oversimplifying to think there is just this ONE thing or THREE blah, blah, blahs….that could ultimately determine someone’s success in a role but I believe there truly is only one question that you must be able to answer to ultimately determine your success:  What exactly does success look like in my […]

Read

The first 90 days are critical to the success of a new hire. Most organizations go out of their way to make people feel comfortable when they are first hired on. (Okay…maybe that’s overstated…but we can emphatically agree most leaders go out of their way). During this “honeymoon” period, a lot of things have to happen […]

Read

There is no shortage of information on how to be an effective leader. Anyone who is interested in being a successful leader or manager can keep themselves busy researching and studying the attributes of great leaders. Often, the attributes of successful leaders are presented as character traits. Experts tell us that the best leaders share these qualities […]

Read

They don’t use possessive pronouns.One of the best ways to tell if a leader has evolved is how they share credit with other people. Do they use “we” and “our” pronouns? Or are they always saying “me” and “my”? The minute you use a possessive pronoun as a leader, you are putting yourself above the people you lead. […]

Read