Search Results 'kirchenbauer'
-
Learning to delegate effectively
March 25, 2013How many times have you mumbled to yourself about your inadequate delegation skills … how a project went off the rails because you failed to properly delegate some of its most important elements? Not often enough, probably, because most of the time, we complain that “he just can’t be counted on” … or, “she doesn’t get it” … or something like “they can’t ever seem to follow through.” We think we’ve clearly spelled everything out and getting it done should be a no-brainer. But, have we?
-
150 years ago they had something else
February 4, 2013On a recent morning, I headed to a favorite place just down the street to fetch a couple of lattes for my wife and me. Our forebearers would have awakened in woolen underwear, stepped in the dark onto a cold dirt floor, and stumbled outside to chop some wood to start a fire in the cook stove balanced on the rocks outside.
-
Building a Business: The prizefighter, preacher and lessons about business
January 14, 2013“One good teacher in a lifetime may sometimes change a delinquent into a solid citizen.” —Philip Wylie Among some of us dads, we often remark, “Dads never get any credit.” Dads teach their kids how to play ball, run, catch, dodge … but if they score a run, a touchdown or a basket … [...]
-
Lessons learned from my 94-year-old mom
November 19, 2012“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~ Winston Churchill In our infancy, mom and dad made sure that our clothes were clean, that we were fed, that we got our vaccinations and regular checkups. They made sure our clothes were mended, our [...]
-
Building a Business: Building consensus is not the same as building success
October 15, 2012“Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people,’ that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” ~ [...]
-
Three rules for successful collaboration
September 24, 2012One of the most popular words in the business lexicon these days is collaboration. But do we really understand collaboration and why it’s become such a ubiquitous battle cry?
Here are three rules to help you get collaboration right.
-
First rule of a mistake: Admit it
September 10, 2012Why do so many persist in their insistence that they did no wrong? Despite the lessons that cover the waterfront … from Watergate to the Catholic Church … the cover-is always worse than the crime. What appeared to be minor tributaries turned into a rushing river of a failed presidency and international scandal, yet the stream of lies and denial from those who fail to heed these lessons continues unabated in both our public and private lives.
-
Is your organization fit enough for the medal stand?
August 6, 2012It lasts about 300 to 400 milliseconds. It occurs about 10 to 20 times per minute. Over the course of a day, excluding about 8 hours of sleep, it amounts to about an hour and 20 minutes on average, a fair chunk of time in our waking day. If you consider that the universe is about 14 billion years old, about 54,000 years would pass by during any given span of those milliseconds.
Some might argue that we can’t see anything during that period. -
When in doubt, move toward the light
July 16, 2012As I was diving deeply into our upcoming video series about the kind of metrics that will serve as our life-saving instruments, I remembered a message from a dear friend in the Midwest who regularly writes to his family and friends. In the contrails of my previous column about the risks of flying blind, it seems like the perfect time to share his wisdom.
-
Are you flying blind in your business?
July 2, 2012We recently finished a three-day soiree with our long time friends from Boston, who we have visited frequently on Martha’s Vineyard where their family has had a home for more than 100 years.
-
Is your vanity getting in your way? Then set the bonfire
June 18, 2012Barely 500 years ago, Girolamo Savonarola was an outspoken and strident critic of the current order, angrily vilifying the worldly possessions that tempted people to become sinners. He was ultimately excommunicated from the Catholic church, condemned for heresy, stripped of his priestly garments, hanged, and his body burned in the town square in Florence, Italy, a stark and ignominious ending to a life committed to vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
-
If you wait to change, it will be too late
June 4, 2012Nothing stays the same. The only thing that changes is change itself and as others start to get up in your grille, you need to be hyper-alert so your organization doesn’t become yesterday’s news. Grove was a man of action, and driven by his “constructive paranoia”, believed “you have to pretend you’re 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can’t hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure.”
-
What the CEO knows is as important as what she or he does
May 21, 2012”God grant that men of principle shall be out principal men.” – Thomas Jefferson Some of you may be familiar with the famed but controversial West Point Cadet Honor Code: “A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do.” Few of us would doubt the wisdom of “will not lie, cheat [...]
-
What if the GSA had a policy against ‘conduct unbecoming?’
May 7, 2012Conduct unbecoming …. You may have heard this phrase before, perhaps from the clenched teeth of a military JAG officer about the same time you learned that “Crystal” is a perfectly apt response to “Are we clear?”
-
You can try, but you can’t fake authenticity
April 23, 2012“If you seek authenticity for authenticity’s sake you are no longer authentic.” –Jean-Paul Sartre Years ago I was traveling regularly to Asia, and wanted to buy my wife a Cartier tank watch, a style that was very popular at the time. I visited a reputable jeweler where most of my partners had been shopping [...]
-
Focus on this: Wash, rinse, repeat
April 9, 2012Does it seem like we’ve talked about distractions a lot in the past? Maybe it’s just the ones in my head that makes me think so … which of course, is a distraction itself. (In the interest of full disclosure, I did write about distractions last April, “Are Distractions Destroying Your Brain?” I responded to the tempest by offering some ideas about how to defend your castle by building a moat, then some barricades, then some lookout posts). I hope you’ve taken some steps to rein in the beast, but we’ll keep talking about it because a day doesn’t go by when I don’t hear about this plague.
-
Keeping the trust of your clients day after day
March 26, 2012You grabbed the last piece of cake before your sister could get it. The principal called and said your daughter broke another girl’s toy because she got to it first. Your son pushed a boy on the playground because that boy got the last place on the teeter-totter.
-
Building a Business: Preparing to win
March 5, 2012Many moons ago when my daughter was 3 years old, she really wanted a Barbie dollhouse for Christmas. She never played with Barbie dolls … never liked them much either … but she loved all the little people and things in that doll house. We found one and hid it in the attic to await Christmas Eve when we could sneak it under the Christmas tree.
-
Without execution, nothing else matters
February 13, 2012If the execution of a company’s plans is an avowed priority, critical to the success of both the CEO and the business, why aren’t CEOs spending enough time on it to make it successful? Why is it that every time the Conference Board surveys CEOs to identify their Top Ten Challenges, “consistent execution of strategy” or “excellence in execution” is invariably cited as being in the top two or three “greatest concerns” … yet, when CEOs are asked about their greatest disappointments or failures, they routinely list their company’s inability to execute?
-
Blame, blame, blame … you
January 30, 2012Déjà vu all over again? How often have you heard that phrase banging against your skull … and how often was it telling you … “I’ve been here before” … “Didn’t we already solve this problem?” … “Why does this subject keep coming up all the time?”
Lists Online
Business Journal connections
-
click one for Journal or Book of Lists digital replica -
Latest Top News- NBBJ Pulse Poll
2013 Forty Under 40 winners
-
Most popular recent items
- Wine tasting sales boom but club churn high, survey finds 7,886 view(s) | posted on May 27, 2013
- Grape Market Insights: 2013 looking a lot like 2012? 4,923 view(s) | posted on May 20, 2013
- Ambulance leader Falck acquires Verihealth 3,142 view(s) | posted on May 20, 2013
- Green Ray breaks LED lumen barrier 3,011 view(s) | posted on June 3, 2013
- Amy’s searches for Sonoma County expansion solutions 2,713 view(s) | posted on May 27, 2013
Latest reader comments
- Lary Kirchenbauer columns
Previous articles
-
Mobile