“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker I recently spent most of a morning visiting with a manufacturing client of our firm.  The main idea of the conversation was that this business has the opportunity to grow (a lot) but they are completely overwhelmed.  It’s a relatively small … Read more

  “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” – Andy Warhol I was visiting with a member of our leadership forum recently and when the topic eventually turned to problems with some of the leadership team, he said, “Hopefully that changes over time.”  Sorry, I said, but hope … Read more

Last week’s post in this space talked about the importance of innovation in a changing world.  But I get pushback from people whose businesses have been fairly successful over a long period of time.  “We’re not struggling”, they say.  “We’re doing fine, our industry is healthy – why mess with a good thing?”  Try this … Read more

“The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” – William Pollard One of the most popular topics in business today is innovation.  If you google innovation, you get about 280 million hits.  If you google innovation in business, you get over 900 million hits.  It’s a … Read more

“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.” – Ellen Glasgow Almost every time we get involved with a company, one of the primary stated reasons is a desire for growth.  We hear “We want to grow”, “We need to grow”, “If we don’t grow we won’t survive”, and any number of … Read more

“The vision must be followed by venture.  It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.” – Vance Havner A lot of time is spent these days talking about vision, and how important it is for organizations to create a vision of their future.  I would agree on … Read more

“Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital.” – Daniel Webster We spend a lot of time in our businesses and organizations talking about resources – conserving resources, allocating resources, etc.  Most of the time if you ask people what resources they’re talking about, you hear one (or both) of the … Read more

“It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief.  And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.” – Muhammad Ali   What do you believe about your organization?  What do you believe about your people?  What do you believe about your customers?  Those sound like questions your psychiatrist should ask.  Leaders … Read more

“Smile – it’s free therapy.” – Douglas Horton Since today is a holiday, and holidays are meant to be fun, we’re going to do something a little different.  We’re not going to have some deep, heavy discussion on leaders and their philosophies.  We spend lots of time being serious – today let’s smile. We as … Read more

“Denial is a common tactic that substitutes deliberate ignorance for thoughtful planning.” – Charles Tremper We recently completed one of the quarterly workshops that makes up part of our Dynamic Leadership Forum.  One of the things we asked members to do prior to coming to the workshop was to complete a simple diagnostic on the … Read more