Strategic Discipline Blog

Without a priority the Whirlwind wins!  Each day you face a myriad of tasks involving your “day job.”  Everything you do day-to-day robs you from focusing on the really important things that are important but not urgent.

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Topics: Accountability, Decision-Making, whirlwind of business, leadership, reponsibility, keys to good decision making, Eisenhower Matrix

Most of us struggle to get out of our comfort zone.  Yet it’s the one thing, done frequently that can dramatically transform our performance. 

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Topics: Training, Leadership Training, leadership, training and education, Core Purpose

A recent article by McKinsey & Company, one of the most prestigious consulting firms, Why Leadership-Development Programs Fail, notes four major reasons leadership development programs fail.  Many of the reasons focus directly on the leadership program.
Leadership training is more than just setting up programs to train and develop your future leaders.  It begins with how you train your people to be leaders in your present operating disciplines.  Let me share the four mistake areas from the article and share how Gazelles Coaches and Positioning Systems treat these to prevent leadership-development failures.

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Topics: Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Leadership Training, leadership, training and education, Patrick Lencioni, Job Summary Scorecard

When Jack Welsh was at GE he had a philosophy to have less people, paid more with a lower total wage cost. 

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Topics: Business Growth, Leadership Training, leadership, Multipliers, productivity, Leadership Team

It’s appropriate to discuss responsibility and accountability immediately after the first week of the NCAA tournament.  The most recent report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 2014 report indicates employers "stand to lose at least $1.2 billion for every unproductive work hour during the first week of the tournament."

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Topics: Accountability, Work Process Flow Charts, People, leadership, reponsibility

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Topics: Business Growth, leadership, manager, Leadership Team, effective delegation

Monday I spent 8+ hours with one of my clients working on strategic and annual planning for 2014.  I purposely say strategy and planning because they are two separate elements to work on. 

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Topics: leadership, Compounding, Leadership Team, effective delegation

What’s the number one function of a leader?  It’s the ability to predict. 

“The fundamental journey of a growing business is to create a predictable engine for generating wealth as it creates products and services that satisfy customer needs and creates an environment that attracts tip talent.” Verne Harnish, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

Unless a company has the ability to determine where it is today and project where its’ going to be this week, this month, this quarter, and this year, it’s not on a trajectory for growth.  It might not even be on track for survival.  A favorite quote of mine is, "When you’re green you grow, when you’re rip you rot!"

Ultimately the reason for imposing structure and instituting systems is to achieve predictability.

This is why Strategic Discipline is such a critical piece to success.

Determine your priorities. Create and monitor metrics. Develop Meeting Rhythms to build a Cadence of Accountability. 

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Topics: Strategic Discipline, planning, Annual Plan, leadership, strategy, Leadership Team

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Topics: People, leadership, Barriers to Business Growth, Leadership Team, . The two most important attributes of effective

We would all like to make better decisions.  Would it surprise you to know that how you go about making a decision will have little to do with how your decision turns out? All the time spent agonizing on making the proper choice has little bearing on whether or not it will turnout being the right decision.

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Topics: Decision-Making, Leadership Training, leadership