In today’s fast-paced business environment, lack of space for collaboration, tight deadlines, and poor communication can make it feel like there is little room for informed decision-making. Teams large and small often begin to execute an idea before concluding crucial discussions.

How much consideration do you and your leadership team give to how you settle and execute big decisions in your company? When was the last time you sat down to consider your methodology? 

There’s an old riddle that tells a story of five frogs sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Take a moment to think about your answer. We’ll come back to it.

If you’re struggling with decision-making in your organization, you’re not alone. These days, we’re asked to make decisions faster than ever, which can leave us feeling like… a lonely frog on a log. If you’re interested in inspecting your company’s decision-making structure here are a few questions to ponder:

1. How do you promote teamwork across organizational divisions or departments?
2. What systems are there to provide mutual support?
3. How can you lead with openness, trust, and a growth mindset?
4. What does it mean for your organization to ensure that decisions are made for the greater good, rather than to foster silos?
5. What protocol do you have for making certain everyone on a team is heard when making decisions?

And, once you have made a decision, what happens next? 

Here are five steps you can take to execute your team’s decisions effectively and equitably.

1. Determine who is affected by the decision
2. Identify the planned content you will share about the decision
3. Decide who will communicate the decision, and to whom
4. Choose how you will communicate the decision (recommendation: in-person is always best)
5. Schedule when you will communicate the decision (another recommendation: as soon as possible)

Let’s go back to the five frogs – What’s your answer? Take your time. No rush. How many are left?

The answer is five.

Why? Because four “decided” to jump off. That’s all they did. And there’s a big difference between deciding and executing. 

Coming to a resolution as a team before moving into action can change the spirit and feel inside your company while ensuring no one feels like they’re left behind. 

Interested in changing your process and systems around decision-making? I can help. I come with over  4 decades of organizational experience and proven strategies to help your team get on the same page. Let’s start a conversation. Give me a call today, or fill out the form below to help me learn about your needs. 

I recently heard Dan Sullivan, founder & president of Strategic Coach say “Our biggest breakthroughs as entrepreneurs come from things that don’t work.” Dan is masterful at summarizing complex situations in one sentence.

Think about that for a moment. Think back to a project or concept you and your team worked on only to discover that it wasn’t as great as you initially imagined.

What did you do when that happened? Did you toss the project aside, and lament the fact that it didn’t measure up to your expectations? Or did you gather the team together to sit down and analyze the event without allowing judgment to cloud your perspective?

Though it may feel better at the time, the first approach is reactionary, and ultimately won’t move you forward. The latter approach is responsive and will help propel you toward something in the future by providing insights and discoveries. You might identify additional skills you and your team can acquire that would’ve enhanced one aspect of the project. Or maybe there was a technology gap you can address that would have added value to the final product. Perhaps someone didn’t have the confidence to actually implement the project or the idea, easily solvable by investing professional development and training services into that member of the team. 

Failed projects show us a myriad of potential challenges, but they also reveal to us the action steps we can take to ensure better the next time around. 

Analyzing the process, systems, and steps you and your team used to develop the project is exactly how you will develop new capabilities for the team. What you identify may feel like an obstacle; however, I encourage you to recognize obstacles as presentations of the raw material you and your team need for the next project.

Moving from reaction mode to response mode after a perceived failure doesn’t have to be tough. I’ve guided teams from a vast array of industries towards seeing their business’s biggest challenges as their greatest potential for change. I can’t wait to lead the way for you. Contact me via the form below for a free, no-obligation consultation on how I can help you maximize the future of your company. The road to success is just a phone call away. 

Each of us has a superpower – it is your unique talent, an ability no one else in your company routinely exhibits, that one thing that always makes your brain dance. What I find interesting is the number of people who have not identified or downplay their superpower.

So, how do you know what your superpower is? I’m glad you asked! Here are five ways to do so:

1. Question what you’ve always done well. We all come with batteries included. Believe it or not, you have had this superpower since you were a little kid. You may have exhibited it in different ways throughout your life, but it has always been there.
   
2. Examine how you interact in new environments. You automatically bring your superpower to every situation, every activity. There is a theme to how you participate in the opportunities and activities you seek out – your superpower is evident in each of them.
   
3. Ask yourself — what comes naturally to me? You may not think of your superpower as all that distinctive because it just happens – there is no conscious thought behind it. Your superpower may feel dull to you; however, when you recognize it, you will understand what drives you.
   
4. Consider what people count on you to do. Everyone else recognizes your superpower and they seek you out because of it. They are naturally drawn to you. Think about what people regularly ask you to do.
   
5. Think about what you love. You love to use your superpower no matter where you are. It shows up in your personal life, your professional life, and all your relationships. 

Once you recognize your superpower, you can strengthen it by using it to become the best version of you. Your superpower is you – celebrate it and wear that cape proudly!

Interested in how to harness your natural talents and interests to advance your organization’s success? My superpower is asking the right questions at the right time. Fill out the consult form below to get in touch for a free consultation — your best self is waiting on the other side. 

Visionaries wake us up. They have 12 ideas a day, generally before most of us get up in the morning. They bring us new ways of doing things – new ways of looking at things.

They challenge us to think differently. If they hear someone say, “we’ve always done it that way”, I guarantee you they will change how we do things. They challenge the status quo.

We need visionaries in our world. They see the big picture and have a pulse on the organization’s industry and ideal customer. Visionaries connect the dots because they can visualize relationships between concepts, between the organization’s departments, and among the projects the organization pursues.

Visionaries act on the present to make that future a reality. Isn’t that what we all want? So, if you have a visionary in your organization, celebrate what they bring to the table. And if you do not have a person who stands out as a visionary, no worries.

There is a bit of visionary in all of us. You can embody the mind of the visionary by taking the time to ponder the need for change in a given situation and questioning why things shouldn’t or couldn’t be better.

Be curious about unmet needs within your organization, unfulfilled potential in a team member, or unrealized aspirations. Don’t settle for the status quo. You owe it to your organization, the entire team, and your customers to do otherwise.

Interested in learning more about the tools and strategies needed for embodying the visionary mindset? I can help. Contact me for a free 15-minute consultation and to learn how to instill your organization with limitless potential.

Who, me?! What?!! Me?!! Yes, you.

I have been helping entrepreneurial leadership teams implement EOS® since 2013, after running my last company on EOS® for five years. During those years I noticed that leadership teams often think about why their business exists in grandiose words.

We default to describing our organizations in terms such as “new” or “improved”, or espouse platitudes like “our business is different”. 

Today we have more of everything available to us. More services. More products. That leads us to look very similar to the organization down the street, across town, or three states away. We get stuck on a competitive treadmill, running a race to nowhere.

I don’t say this to criticize anyone. I say this to recognize that we are all human; hence, comparisons are natural and easy to make. That said, I ask you to consider if why you are in business is changing the world, regardless of where that change takes place. Please allow me to offer an example.

I spent a great deal of time planning PureDirection, and asking myself a myriad of questions. I “think on paper” and am constantly reflecting; consequently, I describe my answers to questions of purpose in great detail. Often, I found myself wondering when I would measure up to the accomplishments of EOS Implementers™ who had built large practices, who were publicly recognized for their skills, and who had published books.

One day I had an “aha” moment after questioning who and what my service is for. I realized my Core Focus™ is simply “to help entrepreneurial leadership teams create a bigger, better future than the one they have today.” That straightforward realization was incredibly liberating. I no longer compared myself to my colleagues. I recognized I didn’t need to impress anybody, and that I alone am in control of my why. Understanding my purpose and impact helped me to realize that I change the world every day in ways I never imagined possible.

I encourage you to get crystal clear about why your organization exists, and recognize how your business is changing the world. 

And then learn to say “no” to everything that does not represent your why. 

Your insight and manifestation of your organization’s why will inspire and attract people. It will help you define the right people for all the right seats in your organization. Your why will attract the right customers to your organization. It has nothing to do with the product or service you provide, it has to do with how you choose to transform. Simply stated, go change the world. 

Do you want to uncover the aim behind your organization’s work and create an intentional plan to produce a better future for you and your team? Interested in refining your purpose and understanding how you can change the world? Please use the consult form below to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with me. Let’s start a conversation about what you want, and how to get there.