Are you measuring the Past or the Future?

What you have your attention on gets attended to. Peter Drucker reminds us: “People think they measure what they get. In fact, they get what they measure.”

What are your measures getting you?  Are the numbers numbing your staff or inspiring innovation?  Do the measures maintain a comfortable zone or create the possibility for the extraordinary?  Maybe it’s time to shake things up, reenergize your staff and your results.

Here are 3 ways to have measures boost performance. Continue reading » »

Get Good at Change: Things To Do (and un-do)

Regardless of what business you are in, in today’s economic whirlwind, if you aren’t good at change and adapting, you are probably having a tougher time than those people who are.  It’s time (actually, past time) to get good at change.

Here are some beginning steps:

1.    Make a declaration. Say what you are committed to accomplishing. Don’t wait for your fears, concerns to subside. Be willing to step up, whatever that means for you. Make your commitment publicly; tell your staff. If you are a solo-preneur, tell a buddy. Find allies; invite others to join you with their declaration, tell the naysayers to … Continue reading » »

How Leaders Breathe Underwater

Many (many) summers ago, when I was in training to be a lifeguard on New York’s Lake George, the first principle I learned was how to safely approach a swimmer in distress. A safe approach included talking to them, letting them know I was there to help them, and giving them instructions.

The second principle I learned was how to get out of harm’s way if I didn’t successfully execute the first principle. Good to know.  If the victim locked his arms around my neck, my automatic moves were: my right arm over his arms, right hand under right side of his chin, strongly Continue reading » »

Shushing is Passé. Speaking Up is In.

Letter to editor SJ Mercury News re: article published Jan 25, 2010.  “Kudos to AMC Cupertino Square 16 for giving autistic kids and parents an opportunity to enjoy watching movies. You set a great example of how to appropriately alter rules (let them talk during the movie, stand up, even touch the screen) to create an environment that lets people bring their whole self to what they do and not be “shushed” by “that’s not the way we do it around here.”

By designating a time and place that accommodates kids with different styles of communicating and interacting with their environment, you earned my Class Act Award. I’m sending the article to the leaders I coach with a note reading:

Continue reading » »

The Opportunity of Mistakes: Positive Impact with Authentic Apologies

Sports blogs are read 100 times more than leadership blogs. So I’m going with Mark McGwire’s apology to raise a leadership point. During the Bob Costa interview, McGwire admitted to his steroid use http://tinyurl.com/yhxqb87 — use he’d been denying for years, even under oath to Congress. I’ll let you call McGwire’s apology a ball or a strike in the zone of authenticity.

First, let’s all get off our high horses – give me a moment to dismount – and move beyond the ball park and into cubical land where most of us work. The mistake is not the point. The point is, when we make them, what do we do next? What’s the leadership move? What’s the impact

Continue reading » »