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Posts Tagged ‘Consequences’

Intentional Leadership — D5, W4, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on October 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Good morning and Happy Friday! It’s been kind of a soothing week here, soft rain…kind of nice, actually. The trees continue to change color, although the rains have caused a lot of leaves to fall, so we have a lot of naked trees, already!

I’ve been thinking about strategy a lot this week, as I suspect we all are, since it’s our area of focus this month. In fact, I spent some time reading about it just yesterday, as I’ve recently completed the StrengthsFinder assessment, and my strongest talent/strength is strategist. The description depicts one who quickly picks up on patterns, envisions the diverse paths one could take, quickly considers the various consequences, culling options all the while, eventually landing on the most effective path to the desired outcome.

It’s a timely concept as I have been working towards a significant transition in my life and it is coming closer…in fact, I’ll be able to share more details with you very soon. As I’m in this “wiggly” space, I am, in fact, very much in a strategizing mind-set. And, as I don’t believe in coincidence, this month’s focus on strategy has been a little more thought provoking for me than some of the other topics we’ve covered to-date.

Having reached this turning point, finally, I intend to “celebrate” this afternoon by treating myself to a scoop of Hershey’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream (it is suspiciously nearly exactly the same as Baskin Robbins’ Peanut Butter and Chocolate…which isn’t available locally!) on my way home…and then we begin the weekend.

As usual, mine will be a mix of work and family time. I need to go back through some bookkeeping (not my strong suit and I’m learning a new system) and make some corrections. We’ve been invited to an “end of summer” party at a friend’s house. Some writing time, some resting time, and yoga. I am also looking more seriously at what’s going on the next couple of months — not just holidays but also end-of-year activities and planning for 2014.

How will you spend your weekend?

What thought have you given to the next 2-1/2 months?

Have you taken an inventory of your accomplishments and your progress-to-date towards your 2013 goals?

What can you do this weekend to prepare yourself for the week and weeks ahead?

What can you do to nurture yourself this weekend?

Who else needs your time and attention?

What have you been putting off that you just finally need to tackle?

However you spend it, I hope it’s intentional!

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Intentional Leadership — D4, W4, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , on October 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

You’ve likely heard me say this at some point, but if we don’t intentionally take time to stop and reflect on our experiences, we merely have a string of experiences in our lives, rather than gaining the wisdom from the lesson. In fact, I encourage everyone I work with to intentionally set time aside for “lessons learned” reflection after completing any significant effort or project. And the lessons are around both what they did well and what didn’t go quite so well, as you see, you can carry forward both kinds of lessons.

As a leader, it’s critical that you do this exercise and analyze past results. Then, consider what measurements you’ve put in place to gauge your ability to execute current and future strategies. Remember to incorporate your lessons learned as you prepare future strategies.

You have the opportunity to integrate strategy as a hallmark of your organization’s culture if you are thoughtful about this practice. You are significantly more likely to be successful in the future if you are able to strategize effectively during your down times, and then it will come as “second nature” during pressure-filled times in your business.

What can you do today, to move your team/organization in the direction of thinking and acting more strategically in all avenues of your business?

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W4, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on October 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

How well do you know your team / organization? If you are to capitalize on your opportunities, it’s important that you know them extremely well; you need to know each person’s strengths and capabilities.

Strategies often fail during implementation because of an organization’s or team’s failure to scope the correct amount of time, capital, and talent necessary to fully embrace the opportunity.*

To avoid finding yourself in a similar situation, take some time today to think ahead…

What opportunity is in your future that you need to take advantage of?

What errors, obstacles, challenges do you envision encountering on the path to your goal? How can you minimize your chances of stumbling over any of them?

What else is going on in your organization that might cause additional challenges or restricted resources as you pursue this opportunity?

Who else needs to know your plan? What other teams/areas of your organization will be touched by this opportunity?

Whose talents do you need on your team to move strategically into this opportunity?

How soon can you meet with the necessary individuals to work through your strategy, map out some actions, and get started moving forward toward this opportunity?

*From Intentional Leadership, by Giant Impact.

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W4, M 10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on October 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This week, we are going to focus on how we can capitalize on opportunities.

As I sat down to write today’s blog post, I was reminded of a story I read last night about Miley Cyrus and the recent “events” in her life. I need to preface this by saying, I don’t follow her career, don’t condone her behavior, or agree with what she appears to be doing. I know enough of her life to know she is Billy Ray Cyrus’ daughter, used to be a young girl sensation as Hannah Montana, and now is apparently dead set on making herself over in a completely new image.

When I would hear some of the stories of her recent behavior (and who could have missed some of those stories?!), I thought, “Oh my goodness! She must not be thinking about what she’s doing and the potential implications and consequences of her behavior!” Frankly, I thought she was yet another public train wreck — another young person thrust into the spotlight and dysfunction that comes with that kind of celebrity when one is too immature to understand and deal with it in healthy ways. But, if the article I read last night (a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, following her episode as host of SNL) is accurate, my initial perception of her is dead wrong.

She shared with the writer that, in fact, what she had been hoping would happen following her performance on the music awards show is exactly what is happening! She noted that while it’s clearly more than a month since the music awards show, people are still spending a lot of time and energy talking about her, her performance, the controversy, and her music. In fact, the cycle continues to churn with new stories popping up, a couple of “open letters” from Sinead O’Connor, etc…Then she appears on SNL, making fun of herself, and spoofing others in the skits, and not in a pathetic, clownish performance. She says her most recent album (dating myself, aren’t I?!) is getting lots of play…and she commented that she knew exactly what had happened to Hannah Montana, “She was murdered!”

Clearly, this last comment is her telling the world that she has deliberately shed the innocent young girl persona and is ready to take on the world in this new, very sexual and very risque new version of who she is at this time.

The result, lots of air time in a lot of forums…lots of discussion…and more opportunities for exposure. Perhaps she’s not entirely a train wreck? She sounds as if she is indeed a shrewd young woman with a plan (a strategy) propelling herself forward. This is not to say that she will be entirely successful in achieving all she dreams of; only time will tell. But, for the moment anyway, this young woman has a strategy and she is executing against it.

So how does this apply to us? As leaders, it behooves us to have a strategy clearly mapped out and to rehearse them in our minds prior to executing them. This gives us the opportunity to operate at a higher level of awareness, which, in turn, allows us to be more intentional in our words and actions as we work to propel ourselves, our teams, and our organizations forward, as well.

What opportunity is in your near future? In what ways could preparing give you every advantage as you move forward?

As Charles de Gaulle said,

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless!

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W3, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on October 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

We’ve talked some about having an awareness of our strengths. I wonder, have you explored this for yourself? If I were to meet you today, and asked you the question: What are your strengths? Could you answer without hesitation?

If you hesitate, I encourage you to spend some time in exploration, as understanding this about yourself will have tremendous benefits throughout your life.

What does knowing one’s strengths have to do with strategy? Well, it allows one to leverage one’s assets, and to do so strategically. It’s one of the keys to success, in that you know who you are, what you have to offer, what your areas of expertise are, and that enables you to build on those assets to move yourself, your team, and your organization forward.

This also allows you to leverage your influence. My leading strength is as a strategist and one of my areas of expertise is in communication. When I combine the two, and develop strategic communication plans, I am able to leverage a strength, with an area of expertise, which allows me to expand my influence. Were I to attempt to function in the say way in another area, say finance or engineering, well…it would be somewhat laughable, as those are not my areas of expertise.

So, learn about yourself so you can leverage your strengths and expand your influence. This, in turn, will allow you to embrace risk more easily, because you have a solid foundation from which to begin.

Think about prominent, successful figures in business who have done this…Rupert Murdoch — made his name in Australia with newspapers and this is how he moved into the US media market, with Fox Broadcasting and the Wall Street Journal. Steve Jobs — so well known for his time at the helm of Apple, also used his technological expertise and intuition about what viewers were looking for when he moved Pixar into the spotlight.

The business world and history are full of similar stories. The question is, what is your story?

Who are what are your most valuable assets and how can you invest in them and deploy them to expand your influence and propel yourself forward?

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Intentional Leadership — D4, W2, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on October 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I first heard this story during the Chick-fil-A Leadercast in May 2012, and find it, again, in the Intentional Leadership booklet we are following, developed by Giant Impact.

It’s the story of Andy Grove, long-time CEO at Intel (by the way, Andy has a fascinating personal story; if you aren’t familiar with it, I encourage you to do a little research on him). There was a point in time when Andy asked these questions:

If a new leader walked into your role today with a fresh perspective and a full mandate to make changes, what strategic shifts would he or she make? What insights would be gained as he or she talked to your customers, employees, suppliers, and consultants?

It’s an interesting exercise and you may be quite surprised at what you come up with — and the freedom you feel when you give yourself permission to step outside your normal mode of operation and look at your world from a different perspective.

As you ask yourself these questions, and imagine the answers, note the responses in your journal.

Then, explore what might be keeping you from making the necessary changes? Would it be actual barriers, self-imposed constraints, or self-limiting beliefs?

What steps do you now need to take to ensure you are really listening to your employees, customers, suppliers, and consultants? How can you maintain that listening posture and incorporate what you hear into your planning.

Choose one change to start with, and move forward.

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Intentional Leadership — D3, W2, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , on October 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I recently looked at a book called Essential Questions. It’s focused on school-aged children, and how we can teach them the essential questions that drive them to do deeper exploration of ideas, concepts, and lessons; the questions that get them in the critical thinking mode. I appreciate this approach, as I believe one of the best things we can do for our children is teach them how to think and to understand that there are many ways of arriving at a workable solution for any given problem. I think we do them a disservice when we teach them there is only one path to an answer and only one way to solve a problem. I think we fail them when we teach them to merely memorize material, as opposed to seeking a fuller understanding of the context, the issues, the players involved.

So it is with strategy and running a business. Asking the right questions can be critical to the success of an endeavor. Good questions cause us to think. Good questions hold us accountable, as they don’t allow us to take the path of least resistance. Good questions feed effective strategic planning.

Today, I encourage you to spend some time developing a dozen or so key questions you can you in strategic planning to help your team / organization stay focused and in alignment with your vision and goals. When you have them written down, share them with a few respected colleagues and ask them to edit or add to your work. Then, use them the next time you do any strategic planning.

Here are some examples to help you get started:

What are we trying to accomplish?

Are our current efforts allowing us to achieve the results we desire?

How would our replacements approach our future?

Who (or what organization) is achieving the results we want? What are they doing that is driving them to success?

What ideas / actions will move us closer to our vision?

What are our core competencies and how do we master them?

Use any or all of these as your base, or develop an entirely unique set, specific to your business. As you do your strategic planning over the next couple of years, continue to fine-tune your list, keeping the ones that work well and eliminating the ones that are not helpful, then add new questions that will better serve you?

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W2, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on October 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

As you go about your daily business, it’s reasonable to assume that you and the members of your team / organization are coming up with a variety of ideas for new things you can do, or how you can do what you are already doing differently, in an effort to improve your products and services. What do you do with these ideas?

How can you manage them so you are working in a proactive posture, rather than a reactive posture?

Here’s one way of managing and sorting through them*:

Record all the current ideas that seem worth further consideration. Run several through this review process and prioritize the ones that pass.

Does the idea support your vision, goals, and values?

Does it fit with your core strengths?

Will the idea make your organization better? How?

To what extent is the organization willing to support the idea and dedicate resources to it?

Would you be personally willing to stake employees’ job and your own to bring the idea to fruition? Is it worth that level of risk?

At your next team meeting, set aside some time to discuss implementation of the most compelling ideas that made it through the review.

Where will it take your organization if you follow through and are successful?

*From Intentional Leadership booklet by Giant Impact. 

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W2, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Have you given much thought the need to adjust your strategy to adapt to changing dynamics in your business environment? I have been, prompted by a recent call with one of my mentors who brought up Kodak.

You remember Kodak, don’t you? For a while, it was Eastman Kodak, then just Kodak, and anyone with a camera — the ones that require actual film — will remember Kodak. Back then, we had to go to the store to buy rolls of film; then, when we’d taken our pictures, we took them back to the store or a film shop and dropped off the role of film to be developed…which often took a week to 10 days! Eventually, someone invented the 1-hour photo developing system, and that revolutionized photography (for us amateurs, anyway), for a while. Then along came digital photography. No longer did you need to buy film or have it developed; now the market was all about memory cards for your camera, and the pixel capability of your camera.

Clearly, this new business model didn’t fit with Kodak’s old model — sell film, photo paper, and developing services. So, how did Kodak respond?

At one point, albeit way too late in the transformation of its industry, the former giant attempted to reposition itself as the Memories company, with print-at-home photo paper and systems…but it was too late. Kodak had missed the boat and ended up filing for Chapter 11 Reorganization.

Are you even aware of what Kodak is up to — if anything — these days? I have to admit, I wasn’t sure if the company was even in business any longer. Turns out, a simple search indicates it is. Today, “Kodak has transformed itself into a technology company focused on imaging for business.”

According to its web site,

“Kodak sharpened its focus to commercial markets as part of a 20-month Chapter 11 reorganization in which it successfully removed large legacy costs, streamlined a complex infrastructure, and exited or spun-off businesses – including its remaining consumer imaging and document imaging businesses – that were no longer core to its future. People around the world will continue to see the Kodak brand through its commercial businesses and licenses with select business partners.

As a result of its reorganization, Kodak today is leaner, financially stronger and ready to grow – poised to take advantage of the digital transition underway in packaging markets; the growing demand for graphic communications products and services in emerging markets; and dynamic growth in the market for printed electronics, sensors, fuel cells and other printed products with functions beyond visual communications.”

This is a prime example of the need to adapt one’s strategy as the dynamics of business and industry shift, and they are constantly shifting. The point: One must adapt to survive, and this is as true for you — as leaders — as it is for your organizations.

Today, spend some time reflecting on the changes you’ve experienced in your industry in the past few years. What were some of the most dramatic? And what adaptations were required for your organization to remain relevant?

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Intentional Leadership — D5, W1, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 27, 2013| 2 Comments »

Good morning and Happy Friday! It’s been a great week for me; I’ve been productive and focused and moving forward. This progress didn’t simply happen, and it certainly wasn’t immediate. It’s taken a lot of work over many days, weeks, months, and I am building momentum. It feels great! So nice to be centered in my purpose, operating in my passion zone, and focused on what matters most.

So, as I prepare for my weekend, I know exactly what I need to focus on: First, family time. I think we need a field trip to the farmer’s market or the WV Zoo (yes, I was surprised to discover this, but apparently there is a zoo in WV). Second, preparation for a couple of workshops I have booked  mid-October — one focused on communication fundamentals and one on Laws of Growth and Laws of Leadership. Third, catch up on bookkeeping. Fourth, some reading, writing, and studying. Oh, and yoga!

Next week, I will spend time planning for an upcoming team building and communication workshop, hold several coaching appointments, and prepare for a new Mastermind Group on John Maxwell’s newest book (to be launched October 10th with a live webcast — more on this in a separate post) Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn.

You know what’s coming next, right?

What’s your plan for the weekend?

Whom do you need to spend time with?

What do you need to do for yourself?

Do you need to focus on work, learning, projects, or rest?

What do you need to do to prepare yourself for success on Monday, in the coming weeks, and even months?

How much better do you feel when you are intentional about how you spend your weekend time and how you prepare for the coming days and weeks?

I would love to hear if you are following this practice and what affects it’s having on your life.

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