I’ll get to the leadership lesson in a moment, but first let me tell you a story. According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the founder and King of Corinth, a city in south-central Greece. Sisyphus was famed for his cleverness, leading Homer to describe him in the Iliad as “the most cunning of men.” Unfortunately for Sisyphus, he was also …
“It is better to first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then figure out where to drive.” -Jim Collins, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don’t” Generally accepted business wisdom agrees that the single biggest predictor of business success …
A common topic that comes up for entrepreneurs during coaching is whether or not they’re committing 100% to their company and goals. From the outside this is counterintuitive. It seems that entrepreneurs commit 100%, just by nature of being entrepreneurs! In reality, though, commitment level fluctuates up and down over time. At times they’re more or less committed to their …
The first time someone told me I needed a vision for my business and life I rolled my eyes at them. To me, vision equaled fantasy. What was the point of imagining a pretty picture of the future if I didn’t know how to get there? I didn’t see the value without a map to get from point A to …
For a long time, when people suggested I stop being a perfectionist, I rolled my eyes at them. I’d come back with a retort like, “Why would I want to be less good at what I do? By striving for perfection I achieve the best possible results!” I had perfectionism programmed into me since early childhood and I honestly thought …
My client’s employee had worked through lunch and it was already 3 pm. As a doctor prior to starting his business, he knew all the reasons this was a poor idea. “The first commitment I made was to do no harm! Go to lunch!” my client told her. When he told me the story, I was impressed. He had connected …
If I had to define them in one sentence, I’d say: If your business looked in the mirror, KPIs are what would be staring back at it. But, since I have more than one sentence, I’ll elaborate. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. A KPI is a piece of tracked and trended information that helps explain how your business (or …
“The entrepreneurial journey is a roller coaster,” they’ll tell you. “But the rewards are worth it.” I’ve heard this, or some derivative of it, more times than I can count. Some entrepreneurs really believe it while others just mouth the words. I’ve gone on the entrepreneurial journey myself a few times, so I know the story. But there’s an unstated …
Leadership vs management… what’s the difference? If you Google it you’ll find a host of articles painting “management” as the shadowy underbelly of leadership done poorly and putting “leadership” on a worship-worthy pedestal. Is “leadership” the Dr. Jekyll to “management’s” Mr. Hyde? Or are these comparisons unfair? If you buy into leadership vs management as a light vs dark paradigm, …
One of our junior technicians was looking at me nervously. He had probably been expecting one of the managers to review his proposal to tweak our workflow. Instead, somehow I, the VP, Operations, had gotten a hold of it. I finished my read through and looked up at him, grinning. “This is some fucking great work,” I announced. His face …
