When talking about business strategies, commentators often talk about goals, and occasionally mention objectives. These terms are, however, usually not clearly defined and very seldom is there a solid hierarchy or discernable relationship between them. In some cases they are used interchangeably. Unfortunately, the use of these terms in other fields and endeavors (like behavior and coaching) often results in understandable confusion. There are real reasons to use each of these concepts to serve specific and distinct functions in support of business strategy and you can build a stronger and more useful strategy by allowing them to satisfy different roles. Goals In my experience; a business or strategic goal should be a general statement of intent that is broad, relatively undefined but expresses the vision…
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8 Strategies for Remote Leadership
In a speech in January of 1977, the Twelfth President of the Mormon Church; Spencer W. Kimball said that “The leaven of true leadership cannot lift others unless we are with and serve those to be led.” Among other things; he was talking about the criticality of being face-to-face with the people you lead to be able to offer them the best possible leadership. History tells us that he was right for the thousand years prior to this speech, but the avenues of leadership were opening up even as he was speaking Our bookshelves are replete with stories of leaders who ruled over vast empires (both political and corporate) effectively exerting influence over a huge number of people. In almost every case, however, the leader…
Leadership Lessons in Presenting an Oscar
Those of you who do not closely follow current culture, (or who may have spent the last weeks on a remote island somewhere) may not have heard that there was an incident at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony where the prize for the Best Picture was initially presented to the wrong team. According to news reports, the envelope for Best Actress was mistakenly given to the presenters by one of the two accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers (now known as PwC) rather than the correct envelope. As a result, the Oscar for Best Picture was given to the team from La La Land rather than to the correct picture; Moonlight. Disbelief and dismay followed when the mistake was corrected after a significant delay. This is, of course,…
The Challenge of the 7th Wave: Retention
Strategy and Risk in Business
Risk is an element of much of what we do in life and is usually considered to be a negative thing. This is also true of developing strategies for business, and many who develop these types of strategies firmly believe that one of their major goals should be to avoid or eliminate risk. That is understandable, but it is also impossible. Trying to eliminate risks completely would be a mistake, and failing to address and leverage risk in a strategy is a recipe for an incomplete product. As you go about building or refining a strategy, it is important to see that developing these tools is largely about picking between alternatives; deciding what the organization will do what it will not do. In business there…
Say “Thank You” Like an Anarchist
[fusion_builder_container background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”” padding_right=”” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text] Expressing appreciation – saying “Thank You” – to someone for a job well done is one of the most valuable but, if sources like Gallup are to be believed, inadequately used techniques in today’s workplace. The value of a simple “thank you” is tremendous in growing pride, sense of team value, determination to succeed and self-discipline in employees. Repeated studies assert, however, that in most workplaces it…