Recent data (see IABC Study) suggests that about half of employees in most companies do not understand the business strategy of their company. Sad, but not surprising.
Creating engagement and alignment among your team is the central job of leadership. How can you expect to excel if half of your people don't know what your strategy is?
How many times have you bought an item from a store, only to bring it home and discover that "batteries are not included" or "some assembly required?" I was working with a client last week when the topic of "solutions" came up. The issue was how to move from selling hardware, software, and services as…
As leader, you are likely to find yourself in the position of having to make decisions about people. Some you will inherit and some will be of your own making. Here are a few thoughts and questions to ask yourself in those situations: To start, consider framing the issue in terms of fit with the…
After years of working with clients in various organizational environments, I’ve realized that in most organizations there is a big question lurking. It is the elephant in the room. These elephants exist regardless of how well the organization is performing, but they are definitely present if there are issues with underperformance. As the leader, it…
I recently became aware of study by the Corporate Executive Board that analyzed 300 drivers of employee engagement and productivity. Guess what the one factor is that had the highest correlation to employee performance, productivity, and retention is "the connection between their work and the organizational strategy". Number 2 is understanding the "importance of their…
According to USA Today, Major League Baseball Commisioner is agonizing about whether to suspend Alex Rodriguez for use of banned performance enhancing drugs. What does this have to do with business models? This case gets at the moral dimension of business models …
I recently declined to pursue two opportunities that emerged over the past several weeks. Both would represent near term revenue. Yet I said no. Why? Why? Because they really do not fit with my strategy and business model. The challenge is that they are close enough to seem like they fit, but they really don’t….
