Every leader I know is pursuing excellence in his or her arena. Consistent execution is the final hall pass on the path to greatness. Systems make excellence predictable. However, systems only work when we work them. Today’s question is from a leader who asked: “How do we make new systems stick?”
Tag: question
Today, I attended a Chess Not Checkers workshop with several hundred leaders. The content was strong, the communicator was phenomenal and the instructional design was engaging and highly interactive. At several points in the daylong program, the participants were asked to record questions that had come to mind during the previous sessions.
This post originally appeared on December 4, 2013. It’s a message that still matters. We have to make tough choices every day.
Every leader worth their salt should be constantly re-evaluating their strategies, not just yearly, but quarterly and even monthly. Good leaders strive for improvement and efficiency and one way we can approach this challenge is to consider which choices create the best impact on and for our team.
As a follow-up to my recent posts on the importance of thinking for leaders, I promised to share some of my favorite questions to stimulate the process. The truth is, there are countless questions with the power to unlock endless possibilities. What follows are some of the ones I return to over and over again.
I’m re-reading Henry Cloud’s book, Boundaries for Leaders, which I highly recommend. I just finished a chapter entitled Control and Results. It was so well written, I want to share a short version of Henry’s challenge.
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Why Not Your Best?
The world lost a beloved leader today… Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, died at the age of 93. His legacy is far-reaching – including a testimony to the power of servant leadership in our world. For all of us who were fortunate to work with him, Truett modeled both integrity of heart and skillful hands. He was the quintessential servant leader.
How do you honor the people in your organization? A couple of years ago, I was making a focused effort to improve in this arena. I knew intuitively different people place different value on various types of recognition. However, to truly honor people, I needed to know specifically what was of value to them individually.
Many of you saw my post on June 10th asking you to help select a title for my new book. The response was outstanding. So much so, we collected well over 100 additional suggestions for what we might title the book.
Simplicity drives clarity. Clarity generates focus. Focus enhances results. Many years ago, someone challenged my team to assess the scope of our product and service offerings. We were doing a lot of things, and we were doing them well. The bigger question was, were they the right things?
As you may know, on Fridays I respond to a question from a reader. Today is another good one. I’ve written previously about how important it is for a leader to find ways to grow his or her capacity. Today’s question is: How do you discern inherent leadership capacity when interviewing a candidate?