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…
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…
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…
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…
We have worked with thousands of leaders since co-founding The L Group in 1999. Here is what we have observed as the top 10 derailers of leadership success. Have all the answers. (instead of asking all the questions) Not connecting with the person behind the employee. (view employees as a means to an end) Slow…
A business is not simply a collection of people doing individual tasks. The glue to any successful business is the way employees coordinate their work with others, communicate expectations and updates, collaborate on ideas to innovate, and share customer insights. Looking for the simplest way to perform job tasks to gain efficiency and maximize employee…
Building your competence boosts your confidence ... and confidence is a close friend to high achievers. Building your competence is like cleaning your house. If you stop cleaning, dust collects. The need to clean never ends. To achieve the success you deserve, you need to find ways to be constantly improving. The task of building…
We had a 22-year family ritual of going to the circus when Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey came to town (and yes, we would buy the hokey photo to mark each year). We have seen some amazing acts in 22 different shows – if it can be balanced, juggled, jumped over, walked on, ridden,…
When I spoke at an Inc. magazine-sponsored Build LIVE event in Boston, a very talented graphic facilitator, Kelvy Bird, captured my 10,000+ word presentation in this picture. Kelvy had never heard my presentation before, so she was listening, organizing, capturing, and creating this in real-time ... impressive! So, for those of you who don’t like…
The world’s most admired companies know how to stick with it. They may not have completely eliminated the knowing-doing gap, but they have certainly reduced it enough to create a significant competitive advantage. Of course, it’s nice to be recognized as one of the world’s most admired companies. However, bottom-line results are also a key…
