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Good Leaders Stay in Touch
Back a few years ago, my friend Roy Osing wrote an article entitled “10 Things Smart Businesspeople Do”. One of those things was that they stay in touch with everyone around them. In his article, Osing says “Place a priority on meeting with customers regularly. There is no substitute for getting feedback on performance directly…
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Compassion Wins – Every Project Team Needs a Whale
Every project team needs a member who can add the most important element to the success of any team: compassion. I was introduced to a very simple model for understanding the human dynamic within teams by Troy McClain (themcclaincompanies.com). I met Troy about eight years ago at a conference where we were both speaking. He…
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What’s in Your Communications Engine?
A recent study by the Project Management Institute entitled “The High Cost of Low Performance: The Essential Role of Communications” says “Ineffective communication is the primary contributor to project failure one third of the time and had a negative impact on project success more than half the time.” Poll after poll, year after year, we…
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Who Should Make the Decision?
I recently wrote about the art and science of decision making. One of the most important phases of decision making, suggested the post, is the preparation: research, listening, weighing alternatives, addressing risk, and more. It all goes into sound decision making. But one more piece of the preparation must also be the question of whether…
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Do You Make the First 5 Minutes Count?
You have an appointment with your new project sponsor, potential customer or new partner. You have never met them before. What does the first 5 minutes of your first meeting together look like? Hint… it shouldn’t dive into the weeds too quickly. Take the first minutes to break the ice or for finding the common…
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Check Your Ego!
We often hear the words “check your ego at the door”. Originally, I was thinking that this should be the title to this blog post. But leaders shouldn’t check their egos at the door. They can’t. Instead they should learn how to manage their egos. Many people will suggest that an ego can be self-destructive…
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Are You Good at Delegating?
Delegating is often ranked in the top three or four skills of the best leaders out there. Certainly, in the eyes of the employees, they see good delegation skills as critical in their leaders. Retaining good people is one of the most important organization building functions that any company has. One of the best ways…
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Are You a Good Leader During the Rough Times?
Life doesn’t always go as planned. In business, we need to be ready for the unexpected, the rough times and the disasters. I am talking about anything from a short-term power failure that lasts a few hours, to a market crash. I am talking about a short-term glitch in your computer system to the long-term…
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A Leader Has Three Plans
Good Leaders don’t need just one plan – they need three! The Organizational/Departmental Strategic Plan is the core to any successful organization and the key to a leaders’ success. This plan is created through a process of evaluation of the current state, recognition and agreement of where we want to be at some time in…
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