A good plan might get you into the game, but sticking with it catapults you into the winner's circle. Based on more than 20 years of field research with the highest-achieving leaders, here are the habits they stick with: Keep it simple.Think in threes to simplify strategies, metrics, messages, and actions. Apply the 80/20 principle to focus…
Category: Execution
Excellent Execution
The fifth growth factor in the healthy growth process is excellent execution. This particular growth factor is near and dear to our hearts since we have written three books on this topic and have worked with leading organizations to help them execute with excellence. A good plan gets you into the race, but adherence to…
The Cost of Making Assumptions
I proposed to Julie during our first trip to Paris, 38 years ago. The following day we walked up 430 feet to the hilltop of Montmartre, known for its beautiful vistas and abundance of street artists. We lingered amongst the local artists, many of them portrait artists, and all of them aggressive salespeople. We buckled…
The Power of Passion: Lessons from a Famous Pez Collector
Researchers who study high achievers now consider passion to be the "missing link." It is the intangible component that explains why some people and teams are better able to stick to their plans and achieve greater levels of success—success like Pierre Omidyar has achieved. After earning his degree in computer science, Pierre Omidyar joined a…
Knowing – Doing Gap
A few years back, we took a family vacation to Greece, which ended in Santorini. It’s a dreamy place where the water is blue, the buildings are white, and the sun is beaming. As with many things in life, we know the right thing to do, but we fail to do it. In this case, I…
Are you Reliable? (Read before you answer)
As I reflected on the life of our family dog, Sparky, I was struck by his gold standard of reliability. Before Sparky went to doggy heaven, he greeted me at home every time I walked in the door for 14 years. To put that into perspective, that’s 20,000+ times without fail! The same greeting, the same…
Aligning Your Team for Healthy Growth
Very few tasks are performed completely in isolation for today's leader. Leaders harness diverse resources and collaborate across functions. In fact, our favorite definition of teamwork is "connected independence." The success of most organizations is directly proportionate to their leaders' ability to inspire excellent teamwork. High-performing teams consciously apply the Team Effectiveness and Alignment Model (T.E.A.M.). As…
Intuition
Here is an excerpt from Leadership Matters. It contains 31 daily insights to inspire extraordinary results. day 17: Intuition Tom Peters called intuition our greatest gift. It’s the feeling we get when what we are seeing doesn’t match up with the facts we think we know; it’s the sudden move we make without thinking that saves…
Be Resourceful
We have been blessed with the opportunity to serve hundreds of CEOs since we started our leadership advisory business. Our clients lead Fortune 1000 enterprises, mid-market companies, and smaller, growth businesses. We continue to grow with them and learn from them. So, in this series, we will share the best leadership advice that one of our CEO…
Find Your Center
Our clients lead Fortune 1000 enterprises, mid-market companies, and smaller, growth businesses. We continue to grow with them and learn from them. So, in this series, we share the best leadership advice that one of our clients has received. Today we will feature Gary E. Conway, Chief Commercial Officer, Saulsbury When you are "centered" as…
