Author Archives: Jim
Leadership: Give them encouragement!
In my favourite film of all time, Field of Dreams, farmer Ray Kinsella tells his wife of his plan to raise their crops to the ground so he can build a baseball stadium so that famed baseball players can come back from the dead to play again.
Her response…“If you really think you should do this, you should do it!”
Do we show enough true support when people come to us with their ideas?
Image attribution: CC image courtesy of you get the picture on Flickr
Food for thought?
Who’s responsible in your business?
Are you clear who is responsible for each of the key tasks in your business?
Do you , like Apple, as highlighted in Adam Lashinskys excellent book Inside Apple, have DRIs?…Directly Responsible Individuals?
Or is it all a bit vague with perhaps two people responsible for some things, and maybe teams of people responsible for others? If so, thats just not good enough!
Make sure every action list or meeting record you create has the task, the deadline and the DRI…solely, singly, and alone. Accountable.
OK?
Are you making the right choices in your business?
Strategy. Some people over-complicate it. They intimate that it is a subject only for business gurus and multi-national companies.
No. Strategy is simple. It is an essential practice for all business owners.
Strategy is about making specific choices to win in the marketplace.
As A. G. Lafley, former Chairman and CEO, Proctor & Gamble, and Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management stated,
“Strategy is an integrated set of choices that uniquely positions the firm in its industry so as to create sustainable advantage and superior value relative to the competition”.
Setting a strategy is about choosing to win.
Are you choosing to win in your marketplace?
Image attribution: CC image courtesy of Skinnyde on Flickr
Life: Don’t give up. Turn up. And take your boots!
I was never very good at football. Just an enthusiastic left back. Eventually, my team Richmond Amateurs, gave up on me and dropped me.
“Do I stay at home on Saturday afternoons and miss out on all the fun or do I turn up at the games with my boots…just in case?”
For once, I did not back down in the face of adversity and you can guess the rest…the opportunity to regain my position soon presented itself!
Don’t give up. Turn up. With your boots!
Where can you take them today?
Image attribution: CC image courtesy of noodlepie on Flickr