Team members in a high performing business want to be challenged, trusted, and treated with dignity and respect. It all boils down to building the right culture where folks are empowered to do what they do best without being micro-managed. Beware the urge to micromanage. There’s a significant difference between leading and micromanaging; that difference … Read more
Productivity isn’t necessarily determined by the number of hours you work, but rather what you do with your time. Level Five leaders are experts at time management. That’s how they find time to support their families and friends, exercise so they can stay in shape, pursue hobbies, enjoy vacations, support their communities, and, at the … Read more
We can’t count the number of times a CEO has told us, “I’d implement a leadership development program and deliberate strategic planning system to provide focus, but I don’t have time…I’m too busy with daily crisis.”
But the truth is you can’t afford NOT to develop these foundational building blocks of a high performing culture. If you can’t figure out how to do it, your competition certainly will. In our world where business is all about change, culture trumps everything else. So what’s the answer?
Integrity takes courage and it is totally transparent. When you see and hear it, you know it. At a recent session at the Simon Business School of the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, integrity was examined in the context of growing high performing cultures. The graduate level students were passionate about the subject. Integrity … Read more
Just like parents watching one of our kids drive out of the driveway on that first date, we have to confront our fears and overcome them through trust. It takes courage to allow others to take the reins and make decisions, because they might fail. Something bad might happen. At the very least, the organization might underperform, and you could lose market share in the short run. But where would we be now had our parents not given us the keys for that first date?
In our experience, a leader who micro-manages a team is insecure. This is almost always the case with young and inexperienced leaders, but with practice and development, these leaders will mature and learn to give team members more and more autonomy and control. We recognize that leadership is a journey and we all develop our … Read more
