“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu I recently attended a workshop that included some team decision-making exercises. The scenario was this: you’re stranded in the desert, 80 miles from civilization, and you have a list of 15 things you could have … Read more
“If your vision is for a year, plant wheat. If your vision is for ten years, plant trees. If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people.” – Chinese Proverb These days in business a fair amount of attention is given to setting a vision for the organization. Not everyone does a good job, not … Read more
“If you surround yourself with the smartest people you can find, people will think you’re a lot smarter than you are. Only insecure people think this works the other way.” – Noah Callahan-Bever I don’t think it’s an outrageous statement to say that your business will go as far as your people will take it. … Read more
“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.” – Ben Stein I’ve been reminded on several occasions this week of a common struggle among business owners & leaders (at least it’s common to the ones I’ve been around). Most individuals leading organizations want their … Read more
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou Last week in this space we talked about taking control of your future. We said that to get started, first think about WHERE you want your business (or your life) to be, then act on the … Read more
“Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” – George S. Patton I attended a conference for family businesses recently, and one of the recurring themes was business-related family conflict. The conversations went in many directions, but one underlying theme was the conflict … Read more
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” – Ernest Hemingway I meet a lot of leaders who want to ‘do strategic planning’. They want to look out into the future, envision what they want to be as a business, then start working … Read more
“Nobody ever wrote down a plan to broke…lazy, or stupid. Those things are what happen when you don’t have a plan.” – Larry Winget I had a very engaging conversation with someone a few weeks ago about strategy development and planning. The core question was, given the rate at which our world is currently changing, … Read more
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu It’s not groundbreaking to suggest that leaders need to always be thinking about the future. Everybody knows that already. That’s why organizations have planning sessions, retreats, etc. We’re all trying to discern what our business needs to be … Read more
“To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.” – Sydney Smith I think it’s fear of the unknown that stops us. We’d rather have the unpleasant reality that we’re familiar with … Read more
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