Imagine a jar. You have a limited amount of space, and you need to fill it with important things. Do you start with the small stuff – pebbles, sand, even water? Or do you begin with the largest items – the boulders? This simple analogy, famously illustrated by Stephen Covey, perfectly captures the essence of effective time management and goal setting. In this blog post, we'll explore the concept of 'Big Rocks' and how prioritizing them is crucial for scaling up your leadership and achieving your most ambitious business goals.
The corner office can be a lonely place. With decreasing tenures and increasing demands, today's CEOs face unprecedented challenges in leading their organizations. While McKinsey's groundbreaking research in "CEO Excellence" reveals six fundamental mindsets for success, what truly stands out are the counterintuitive lessons beneath the surface.
In the dynamic and demanding landscape of modern leadership, the power of connections is often overlooked. Yet, it's the threads of relationships that weave together the fabric of our success. Your network isn't just a collection of names; it's a reservoir of knowledge, support, and opportunity. By strategically building and nurturing your leadership network, you can unlock doors, amplify your impact, and drive your career forward.
In the dynamic and competitive landscape of modern business, the success of an organization is inextricably linked to the capabilities of its leadership. While external factors such as market trends and technological advancements play a significant role, the quality and development of leaders are the driving forces behind long-term sustainability. Let’s explore the critical importance of leadership development in fostering company growth and resilience.
Leaders are often cast as the architects of their own destinies, expected to build empires while maintaining an idyllic personal life. The concept of work-life balance, a term laden with equal parts aspiration and unattainable perfection, has become a modern-day myth. Yet, thriving in this high-stakes world is not about achieving equilibrium, but rather, about cultivating a dynamic harmony.
With the 4thquarter just weeks away, CEOs are prepping for their annual strategic planning sessions. Leadership retreats are being scheduled, agendas are starting to form, but do you have the foundation in place to draft your plan?
I encourage leaders to answer these four questions before their strategic planning event.
Most of us are enjoying the vacation months and warm weather — including record heat in many places — yet August signals the end of summer. This is especially true in our businesses, where we go from a more relaxed pace to full-throttle the moment the calendar switches to September.
Suddenly, the end-of-the-year countdown is upon us, and we only have four months to meet our annual goals. Our calendars get filled with budget reviews, prioritization meetings, status updates and the entire business seems to be operating in race-mode.
I hear it constantly: “There aren’t enough hours in the day.”
Do you find it hard to concentrate and stay focused because there’s just too much to do? Do you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about how you’re going to manage everything? Is your calendar booked solid every day?
What if I told you that the #1 roadblock to growing your business is something YOU can control? The answer is simple… DELEGATE!! There is no way you can scale the business if everything depends on YOU.
As business leaders, we want to recruit and retain the best and brightest team members to execute on our strategic vision. But are we looking at the right factors when building our executive leadership team? Do we really know what makes great leaders in today’s environment?
I’ve worked with leadership teams throughout my career — from building great, highly effective teams at Shelter Mortgage to all the companies I work with in my current role as a Strategic Business Coach. I’ve noticed five common traits in the most successful executive teams, and I share them below as the “Secrets of a Genuine Leader.”
Could your team make it to the Final Four?
It’s March Madness, and I can’t help but draw parallels between the teams on the basketball floor and the executive teams I see in the business world. They both operate off the same set of basic principles:
1. Get the basics right. Know your core values and stay true to them. Stay positive and work together on shared goals instead of personal, isolated goals. You can’t win the game alone.
Apple, REI, Walt Disney, Nordstrom, Starbucks…
When you walk into any of these businesses you immediately feel their company culture. It hits you the moment you step inside. It’s in the way their team members greet you, their level of service and the subtle behaviors you might not even notice.
All of these companies take their cultures seriously. They make trust, transparency, respect and pride all non-negotiable, and these qualities get mirrored in their customer-facing interactions.
