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Commodities, Academics, Golfers, and Stars

It isn't hard to understand why so many refer to themselves in this way: it helps the ego, helps marketing, and shines a patina of professionalism and respectability on their activities. But just because these...

Thought exercise: The unexpected cash infusion

And yet, from time to time, there are things that come up opportunistically; if you don’t pounce, the opportunity will pass, so you reach into your budget to make it happen. One source of opportunity...

Building Team Engagement as a Leader

There is a sweet spot to hit when it comes to engaging others within a conversation. If you talk over their heads, are patronizing, or are simply doing a one-way monologue, inevitably they will become...

Effective decision-making: RACI vs RACIO?

This story is exceptionally common in growing organizations – and there is a solution: RACI. RACI (Responsible/Accountable/Consulted/Informed) is a decision-making framework that recognizes that each person connected to a decision has a different role: “Responsible”...

Choosing a leadership retreat facilitator

How much do you really know about strategy? About leadership? A tough question, but if the answer is “read all of my books, review my (published) research, listen to my podcasts, and here are example...

Two Post-Merger Integration Strategies

The rationale for most mergers always includes an expectation of synergies. But does this mean always cutting from the acquirer? Or is there another approach to a successful post-merger integration? 1) Handle the integration as...

Five Questions for Assessing Project Complexity

How can we set up guardrails to make our calculations more accurate and objective? Here are my quick five questions to assess how complex any given initiative will be: Is the challenge one-and-done? Or will...

Client onboarding email: First step

To make our time more productive, a few things… 1. To help me quickly get up to speed on your context, would love to go through any documentation that you have handy. If you don’t...

Innovation, Quality, and the Challenge of Exceeding Client Expectations

When is something “good enough”? It can take one hour to get something to a 90% quality. It would take another 10 hours to get it to 99% quality. And it would take even more...

Two Ways Leaders Listen

Everyone on your team has potential. Some people have a little, while some have a lot – but how many people truly invest the time to reach their potential? The person with less potential who...

Learning, Facilitation, and Relationship-building at Leadership Retreats

Learning: The value of a training component is that it achieves two important goals: It introduces new concepts, and it builds a common vocabulary around these concepts. When everyone goes back to the office, there...

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