“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
“You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.” – Abraham Maslow A recent survey of international business leaders concluded that the #1 focus for those leaders was ‘profitable growth’. Lots of people hear ‘growth’ and they immediately think of new products or new markets or really successful salespeople. But … Read more
“This is the first time in history that you can be great at what you’re doing today and be out of business tomorrow.” – Ken Blanchard Quotes like Blanchard’s above can be found everywhere these days. Everyone talks about the pace of change and how quickly we have to change and how if we don’t … Read more
“Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.” – John Wooden Despite all the things we say about positive attitudes and self-talk and the like, the reality is that as long as you’re a resident of this planet, things are going to happen that don’t mesh with … Read more
“Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” – George S. Patton One of the more frustrating (and common) things I hear from business owners thinking about their future is “I’m not sure”. It’s usually said in the context of “We better not do anything differently than we’re doing it now because I’m … Read more
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” – Peter Drucker As someone who gets paid to help organizations develop & implement strategy (among other things), I get lots of questions about the best way to go about developing strategic initiatives, how to make sure they get done, etc. Usually people expect to hear terms like “SWOT analysis” or … Read more
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