Leaders Stop Trying to Be Efficient

Let's cut right to the chase; stop focusing on being efficient - it's a waste of time. Nobody other than perhaps you really cares how efficient you are, but everyone cares how effective you are. Not only do they care how effective you are, but they also care about the effectiveness of those whom you lead. It's important to remember leadership is a people business, and people are messy. Leadership…

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Leadership and White Space

In my most recent column on Forbes I briefly discussed the value of white space as it relates to "span of control" but felt the topic deserved a deeper dive. Here's something you might not want to hear, but you should definitely take to heart - If you're having difficulty ordering your world,  it's nobody's fault but yours. I don't care how busy you are, but I do care about what you accomplish -…

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Family Matters

For the last post of the year I decided to update a piece I published earlier this year - I also consider it to be the most important work I authored this year...it applies to all of us.  Over the years I’ve come to believe that there is only one sure-fire litmus test for measuring leadership success, and to the chagrin of many reading this post, it has little to do with what happens on the job.…

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Success vs. Significance

As one year draws to a close and another begins, I can think of no better time to dust off an old post and ask you to ponder the difference between success and significance. Some would say that any discussion along this topic line is nothing more than a semantical debate. However, it is my opinion that those who hold this view truly don’t understand the difference between the two, and are simply…

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Increasing Productivity

“Finding The Zone” is a concept that most athletes are familiar with, but what about CEOs? We’ve all heard the sportscaster refer to an athlete as being in “the zone,” and so my question is this: “How do you find your performance zone as a CEO?” or better yet, “How do you find and remain in the leadership zone?” What respectable chief executive wouldn’t want to function at their best more often…

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Play to Win

Today's message is not likely to please the politically correct, nor will it mollycoddle the timid. I'm not going to address competing or playing nicely, rather I'm going to deal very bluntly with the topic of winning. Want to succeed? It's easier than you might think...just don't quit. Strip away the excuses, rationalizations, and justifications, and the only thing standing between you and the…

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