The Power of Passion in Business

Tom Asacker, over at A Clear Eye, offers his perspective on both passion - and compassion.

In addition to his stroll through the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (a major passion of yours truly), Tom also boils it down for us:

"I have always wondered which attribute was more important to success in business: passion or compassion? I’ve gone back and forth on this one for years. But I’m finally done flip-flopping. Here is what I discovered from the emotion-filled, twisted faces and colorful outfits of the early blues shouters through the most current teen idols: passion sells! Passion not only sells, it creates! It busts paradigms; it inspires; it attracts; it stirs; it rejuvenates."

His key takeaway?

"What I’ve finally realized is that passion and compassion are simply opposite sides of a successful business coin. It works like this: when communicating one-to-many, passion rules! When communicating one-to-one, compassion rules!

BOTTOMLINE: "This rule applies to everything from advertising, selling, PR, speeches, customer service, employee communication, negotiation, etc. Think about it. And then let me know what you think. And by all means . . . stay passionate!"

How Google Stays On Track - The 70% Solution

Business 2.0 posts an interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, on the formula he uses to stay on track while innovating:

"Spend 70 percent of your time on the core business, 20 percent on related projects, and 10 percent on unrelated new businesses."

BOTTOMLINE: How are you spending your time?

Introduction to the Six Disciplines Concept - Short Video

Ever wonder how a business idea gets started?

Take a look at this short video, as Gary Harpst, CEO and Founder of Six Disciplines Corporation, and author of Six Disciplines for Excellence, gives you the insight on how the concept of Six Disciplines was started.

Six Disciplines Leadership Centers - Upcoming Webcasts

If you're a regular reader of Be Excellent™, you're aware that it takes four key elements for lasting business excellence:

1. A Methodology - to make business-building systematic
2. Technologies - to make the Methodology practical
3. Local Coaching - to make the Methodology and Technologies work together
4. Ready & Able Client - to make it all work, and to achieve business excellence that lasts

We deliver #3, Local Coaching, through a franchise business model called "Six Disciplines Leadership Centers."

We will be offering a series of FREE webcasts to discuss this business opportunity with passionate professionals. The webcasts will be conducted on:

• Friday Dec 2nd 12:00 – 1:00 EST
• Thursday Dec 8th 12:00 – 1:00 EST
• Thursday Dec 15th 12:00 – 1:00 EST
• Tuesday Dec 20th 12:00 – 1:00 EST
• Thursday Dec 29th 12:00 – 1:00 EST

To register and attend one of the Six Disciplines Leadership Center Franchise Opportunity webcasts, call Scott May at 419.581.2821 or email Scott.

A Refresh for Leaders

Lisa Haneberg is one of the the top professional management and leadership trainers, coaches, and organization development consultants in the country. She authors Management Craft.

Lisa is kind enough to share her process for establishing, fine tuning, and executing on goals in a free 19-page ebook called "New Year's Resolutions for Leaders."

Read about this ebook here and download her PDF.

Basketball and Lessons of Leadership

Basketball is an intricate, high-speed game filled with split-second, spontaneous decisions.

But that spontaneity is possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice and agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court.

Great basketball coaches, military commanders and business leaders know that practice of the rules of engagement coupled with split-second decisions in execution by their team can make the difference between winning and losing.

Great leaders know that if you can create the right framework (by everyone knowing the rules and practicing them), when it comes time to perform, your players will engage in fluid, effortless, spur-of-the-moment dialogue and action. The leader provides the overall guidance and intent to the team, coaches them in mastering tools and general techniques through practice and then allows them to use their own initiative and be innovative as they move forward.

BOTTOMLINE: Placing a lot of trust in your team members has an overwhelming advantage:
Allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves within the rules of engagement, focuses their energy and opens the possibility for extraordinary leaps of insight and instinct in decision-making. When the team is "in the flow," split-second decisions are unconscious flashes of insight that drive extraordinary performance on the basketball court, battlefield, professional service office or shop floor.

Orchestral Maneuvers and Leadership

Adrian Savage, over at Slow Leadership, has posted one of the best analogies, comparing leaders in two different arenas: business leaders and orchestra conductors.

The best quote that sums it up?

"One of the images I like best for Slow Leaders is the conductor of an orchestra. Not the leader. The leader of the orchestra isn't the conductor, it's the principal violin player. The conductor's there to set the right tempo and manage the interpretation of the piece the orchestra's playing. The conductor must also keep a close watch on the balance of sound between the various instruments..."

BOTTOMLINE: And so it is in business. The conductor (the business leader - the CEO, president, owner, founder ...or just leader) is there to set the right tempo, manage the interpretation of the mission, vision, values, strategic position of the organization, set goals that lead, and align the team members continually, as they play the company's "music" every day.

Be Excellent™ Readers - Unite !

OK..here's the lastest "mashup" using Google Maps.

1. Go here
2. Click the "Add Yourself" link
3. Supply your name, location, and your picture
4. You'll be asked to sign up for Frappr! (it's free....)
5. That's it!

BOTTOMLINE: You'll be able to see (and message with) other "like-minded" people who enjoy reading Be Excellent™.

(Thanks to Skip Angel and others for this fun one...)

Be Excellent™ Included in Carnival of Lean Leadership #3

Good friend Kevin Meyer, over at Evolving Excellence, publishes his third Carnival of Lean Leadership, and includes (humbly) an entry from Be Excellent™.

Kevin does an amazing job scouring the blogosphere to bring you the best in lean manufacturing updates.....Check it out at Evolving Excellence.

Encouraging - An Essential of Leadership

In a 2003 book entitled: "Encouraging the Heart: A Leaders Guide to Rewarding and Encouraging Others," authors James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Pozner say that the task of leaders is to continually, perpetually, encourage the hearts of the people they lead.

This story is a constant reminder to us of the power of a very simple principles of human performance: people like to be recognized for doing their best.

The seven essentials of encouraging:

1. Set clear standards
2. Expect the best
3. Pay attention
4. Personalize recognition
5. Tell the story
6. Celebrate together
7. Set the example

BOTTOMLINE: Read the entire review and more detail about the book here.

(Thanks to Patsi at BizBook Nuggets for the tip!)

10 Most Influential Business Writers or Management Gurus of 2005

The Financial Times recently ranked the people who had the most influence in business theory and practice in the past year.

10 Most Influential Business Writers or Management Gurus of 2005

1. Peter Drucker
2. Bill Gates
3. Jack Welsh
4. Philip Kotler
5. Michael Porter
6. Jim Collins
7. Richard Branson
8. Warren Buffet
9. Tom Peters
10. Stephen Covey

BOTTOMLINE: You'll notice we have covered ALL of these people within Be Excellent.

Non-Traditional Measures of Performance

Fastcompany Magazine chronicles the recent activities of "Good To Great" author, Jim Collins, specifically dealing with non-traditional measures of performance.

The article, which originally appeared in yesterday's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Collins has recently turned his attention to non-profit organizations, such as museums, orchestras and hospitals.

"A breakthrough came when he spoke to leaders of the Cleveland Orchestra, They weren't trying to increase earnings per share or return on equity; instead, they tracked standing ovations, invitations to perform in Europe, and the number of orchestras copying the Cleveland style."

BOTTOMLINE: What non-traditional metrics and measurements of performance might you apply to your work?

Team Member Loyalty On The Rise

Employee loyalty is on the rise, according to a recent survey of U.S. workers by Walker Information.

Some key findings:

• 34% of workers committed to their company - that's up from 30% in a 2003 survey and only 24% in 2001
• only 55% of those surveyed said companies treat employees well
• only 41% felt their employer views staff as its most important asset
• Information technology saw the biggest jump, with 36% feeling truly loyal, up from only 19% in 2003

Words To Live By - for a Monday

George Ambler, over at posts this quote from Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By":

"We all need warm, deep, personal relationships to thrive, but modern life seems to place such a small value on them compared with the high value placed on money and prestige and pleasure. It is so easy to be distracted and to fritter our attention away in countless ways, until we find we have nothing left for family and friends. By simplifying our lives, dropping less important activities, we allow more time for what matters most. But it is also essential to slow down our pace of living, so that we can free ourselves from the grip of time-driven thinking and behavior."

BOTTOMLINE: Something we should all consider during this Thanksgiving week.

More on Peter Drucker

Kate, over at 800-CEO-Read, posts "a few more links to various Drucker tributes and articles."

Some really great pieces here in tribute to the top management thought-leader of all time.

BOTTOMLINE: So many good ones here...spend some quality time reading - absorbing - doing.

Pitching Your Business Plan To An Investor

Dave Cowen has an experienced entry on "How To NOT Write A Business Plan " where he states:

"Entrepreneurs often ask me for a sample business plan they can use as a model for their fundraising efforts. They are surprised when I send them a PowerPoint file. "

Dave's take?

Create a 10-slide Powerpoint:

1. Contact, logo, tagline
2. Mission statement
3. Introduce the team
4. Nature of the problem
5. Introduce your product/service - and its benefits
6. Why your approach is unique
7. Show off early wins (customers, distribution, accolades)
8. Sales strategy (how you will get customers/clients)
9. Competitive landscape
10. Current financial situation

BOTTOMLINE: Read this entire discussion, specifically if you want to pitch a new business idea to an investor (of any type.)

(Thanks to bBlog for the tip!)

Kaufmann eVenturing for Entrepreneurs

Brad Feld, one of the top VC/industry pundits at Feld Thoughts, offers this tip on the newly relaunched Kauffman eVenturing web site and blog.

Kauffman eVenturing is ready for its public coming out party! The site is designed for busy entrepreneurs, and is well on its way to being packed with relevant, practical and timely information on how to manage and expand your business.

The Kauffman Foundation has always been a huge resource to the entrepreneurial community.

(Thanks to Brad for the tip!)

Six Disciplines Business System: An Introduction

OK, by now, perhaps you've read the book "Six Disciplines for Excellence."

Perhaps most intriguing to most readers, the book is just the tip of the Six Disciplines "iceberg."

Where most business improvement authors drop the ball is writing a decent book -- and stopping there -- leaving it up to its readers to implement the ideas and hope for the best.

That's where Six Disciplines is unique.

Behind the book is Six Disciplines Corporation, supported by more than $10 million dollars of funding and 50 man-years of R&D, developing practical Internet-based technologies that make the Six Disciplines™ Methodology practical.

Want to see an introduction to the Six Disciplines Business System?

Go to www.SixDisciplines.com

Login with
Username: Be Excellent (with a space - case sensitive)
Password: BeExcellent (no space - case sensitive)

Under My Account, select "My Courses" , and select one of the Introduction Courses listed. Then select "Launch Course."

HINT: Check out the Business System Introduction first, then perhaps the Methdology Introduction.

Servant Leadership: Leadership With A Lasting Difference

A lot is being written now about Servant Leadership.

The Servant Leadership approach described by leading authority Robert K. Greenleaf, can be described like this:

"The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. The conscious choice begins one to aspire to lead."

The best test of Servant Leadership?

"Do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves -- to become servants?”

One of the best sites to learn more is to read Trevor Hall's Servant-Leadership.

Good News For The "Aging" Workforce

Management-Issues reports on a new Hudson research report:

• 4 out of 10 U.S. workers say their organizations want to hold onto older workers because they are difficult to replace
• More than twice as many businesses encourage older workers to stay on the job than to retire early
• Only 1 in 10 organizations are promoting retirement for older workers

What's behind it all?

• More than a third told the Hudson survey that their firms offer formal mentoring programs to pair a younger worker with an older one for guidance and training. That number rises to half of companies with 250-500 employees.

BOTTOMLINE: "Organizations that go beyond accommodation to active engagement of older workers stand to benefit from a loyal, hardworking labor force that offers tremendous experience and institutional knowledge."

Business Opportunities Weblog Showcases Six Disciplines Podcast

Dane, over at Business Opportunities Weblog, showcases "Six Disciplines’ CEO on Small Business Trends Radio."

For those of you not familiar with Dane, he moderates/authors the top blog for business opportunities and entrepreneurs looking to improve their own businesses.

Speaking of Six Disciplines...and business opportunities...if you're a like-minded professional, feel free to check out the Six Disciplines Leadership Center opportunities here.

Business Pundit Showcases Six Disciplines Podcast

Rob, over at Business Pundit, showcases the podcast with Gary Harpst, CEO and Founder of Six Disciplines Corporation.

Rob's take?

"Small business owners should definitely check this out."

Business & Technology Reinvention Showcases Gary Harpst Podcast

David Daniels, our friend over at Business & Technology Reinvention, links to the podcast of Six Disciplines Corporation CEO and Founder Gary Harpst, as he was interviewed by Anita Campbell on the topic of "Why Most Businesses Lose Their Edge".

David also is close to finishing the book "Six Disciplines for Excellence" - authored by Gary Harpst.

His assessment so far:

"I'm almost finished reading it. The book is high value and I recommend it for all business people."

Looking forward to David's perspective on the book - and on Six Disciplines - coming soon.

Six Disciplines' CEO on Small Business Trends Radio

Gary Harpst, Founder and CEO of Six Disciplines Corporation, was interviewed today by Anita Campbell, host of Small Business Trends Radio, as heard on VoiceAmerica Internet Radio.

Harpst, himself a successful entrepreneur (having been CEO and founder of Solomon Software,)discusses what small businesses need to do to build organizations that learn, lead and last., and why most businesses eventually lose their edge.

Go here to listen to the entire 60 minute podcast. (HINT: double click on the Windows Media Format, Real Format, or MP3 format)

(We will be segmenting the show into smaller chunks in the near future....)

How Can Start-Up Ventures Grow?

For new start-up ventures, a lack of resources makes growth difficult to come by—just ask those 9 our of 10 fledgling firms that fail.

Harvard Business School Professor Mukti Khaire says from her research the key may be in acquiring intangible resources such as legitimacy, status, and reputation.

So how do those 1 our of 10 firms grow into successful, sustained enterprises? Some of her key findings:

• Only one out of every ten newly founded firms in the United States grows to a size of more than ten employees (Aldrich, 1999).
• One revelation was the strong positive effect that mimicking older organizations had on new venture growth. Mimicry is important - for new firms in established industries, there is value to doing some non-technical, symbolic things in the manner that is widely accepted, and to adhering to industry norms and culture.
• Entrepreneurs and managers should almost never shy away from stepping out of their comfort zone and taking on large jobs, since the payoff does arrive.

Trend Toward Software As Services For Small Business

Anita Campbell, over at Small Business Trends, hones in on the buzz about the "Trend Toward Software As Services For Small Business" which has received enormous play now that Microsoft has begun to legitimize it.

Anita offers two assertions that may be appropriate for readers of Be Excellent™:

• If you are a small technology company, it (software as service) has the power to make your products cheaper to build, sell and deliver. You will need much less cash investment in such a business.
• If you are a small business that is a user of technology, your choices of affordable, easy-to-implement services are going to become much bigger. You will have access to ever more powerful software, without the need for involving your already-stretched — or non-existent — information technology staff.

BOTTOMLINE: Interestingly enough, Six Disciplines uses a "hybrid" services model that includes not only "software as service" - but also includes "service as service." In other words, the Six Disciplines Business System adheres to a "software as service" model, in both deployment over the Internet, and in pricing. In addition, the business coaching offered through Six Disciplines Leadership Centers provides the local, trusted advisory services organizations need, in order to keep on track, and continually improve their performance.

Harpst To Be Guest on Small Business Trends Radio

Gary Harpst, CEO and Founder of Six Disciplines Corporation, will be the next guest on Anita Campbell's Small Business Trends Radio Program, broadcast by VoiceAmerica Internet Radio.

Gary's topic?

"Why Most Businesses Eventually Lose Their Edge"

The show will be aired on Tuesday November 15 from 1:00 - 2:00 Eastern time, and will be rebroadcast as an MP3 podcast 24 hours later.

To tune in, go to Business.VoiceAmerica.com

Here's the e-card showing all the details.

Be Excellent™ Mentioned in Carnival of Computing

David Daniels (fellow alum of Microsoft), was kind enough to mention a Be Excellent™ entry in his Carnival of Computing, along with a good number of entries, over at his Business & Technology Reinvention blog.

Check out the 5th installment of the Carnival of Computing here!

Drucker: One For The Ages

Peter Drucker, the organization consultant whose clear thinking and engaging analysis made him the leading management guru to many of the world's biggest companies, has died. He was 95.

In 1954, Peter Drucker said that the purpose of a business is to create a customer. It was true then and it's true now.

Throughout his career, Drucker made a point of working with charities and non-profit institutions, such as the Girl Scouts of America, hospitals, churches and universities, because he believed that good management is vital to all aspects of life. The Wall Street Journal reported that by 1987, Drucker was devoting half of his consulting hours without charge.

(Thank you Mr. Druck, you are an inspiration to more people....than you'll ever know.)

Passion for Small Business

The 2005 Sage Software Business Minds Survey found that North American businesses are optimistic, carry a passion for the entrepreneurial life, and manage with a fluid nature befitting the fast pace necessary for growth.

Fully 68% of respondents have employees who work from home at least some of the time. They are "bootstrappers," the majority having self-financed the business. And they rely heavily on their accountants for advice on business issues.

Find out what small business owners, CEOs and presidents are thinking - view the key findings here.

The Importance of Reading - Continual Learning

Wilson Ng, the prolific moderator at Reflections of a BizDriven Life, offers his well-heeded advice to everyone about the power of reading.

In his recent entry, Your Most Important Job, he articulates why it is so important to establish an environment conducive to reading - for yourself, with your children, even with your team members.

BOTTOMLINE: An excellent piece on the fundamentals and importance of reading and continual learning - and how it can easily be translated into the foundation for organizational learning.

Speak Softly - And The Power of Humility

If you're not familiar with ChangeThis, you need to be.

In particular, take a look at the new manifesto from Ira Williams, called "Speak Softly"

Go there now...take 10 minutes to read and reflect on the entire piece.

Enough said.

Be Excellent™ Mentioned in Carnival of Lean Leadership

If you and your organization are into lean manufacturing - run, don't walk - over to Evolving Excellence.

Kevin Meyer, the author/moderator, is one of the sharpest resources out there on "all things lean."

In the relatively new blogging tradition of Carnivals (definition: collections of best-practices blog entries on a particular topic of interest), Kevin posts his Carnival of Lean Leadership #2 here.

Kevin was even so kind as to reference Be Excellent™ in his review!

Is Mentoring Worthwhile?

The NFIB just posted this thought-provoking article on mentoring.

Their definition of mentoring?

• Mentoring happens when a more experienced individual guides and nurtures a less experienced employee.
• Usually, the mentor is older and has more experience with the company as well as in the job field.
• Mentoring allows the older generation to guide the upcoming one through role modeling, counseling, instructing and working to advance younger employees’ skills and capabilities.

Qualities of a good mentor?

• A mentor must be a patient and friendly person with strong interpersonal skills and effective listening ability and, of course, sufficient organizational and operational knowledge.
• The mentor must demonstrate concern for the development of others and be credible within the company.

Qualities of a good mentee (or protoge'):

• The mentored employee most successful would be ambitious, enthusiastic, open to feedback and coaching, proactive, willing to learn and willing to assume responsibility for his or her growth.

The value of mentoring?

• Mentoring can thoroughly communicate a company’s culture, values and traditions much more rapidly and completely. Mentoring can serve as an economical development tool in your succession planning process. Proper mentoring can even increase your chances of retaining its more promising performers.

BOTTOMLINE: Use a formalized mentoring program within your organization. Have it be an integral part of your people-performance management process. Mentoring is a cross-culture, cross-age, cross-functional process for continual organizational learning and improvement.

Microsoft Live, Strategic Planning and Alignment

For those of us who cover Microsoft news, their most recent unveiling of Microsoft Windows Live and Office Live reveals not only new direction, new opportunities, and new markets for the software giant, it also reveals lessons in strategic planning and alignment.

When top execs at Microsoft craft key memos, things happen. Before the Microsoft "Live" announcement, Gates published in December of 1995 his now famous "Internet Tidal Wave" memo to the company, which ultimately (in fairly quick order....) described how the internet was going to forever change the landscape of computing, and ultimately changed the strategic direction of the organization.

With the Microsoft Live announcement, two key executive memos were made public on November 1 that give you insight into the strategic planning and alignment thinking within Microsoft.

First, is the Gates memo, where he informs Microsoft execs and team members that "the next sea change is upon us." In the memo he describes the need to shift to software as services model, the opportunities and implications of doing so - and, ramifications of NOT doing so.

Second, and perhaps even more insightful, is the Ray Ozzie memo. (For those of you not tracking Microsoft, Ozzie was the creator of Lotus Notes, now working as Chief Technology Advisor to Gates). Ozzie's assertions provide complementary content and depth to Gates' memo, and offers additional strategic implications of the need for change.

BOTTOMLINE: Late to the party as some analysts say? Perhaps. Better late than not changing direction. While your business may (or may not) become the next Microsoft, there are key strategic planning and alignment lessons to be learned from these memos. Read them - and read between the lines, as you put yourself and your business, in the same relative position. What is happening in your business? What shifts in competitive landscapes are occuring? What does your business need to do -- to be an organization that can Learn, Lead....and Last?

Entrepreneur Guidebook for Tech Startups

Joseph G. Hadzima, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, offers a collection of articles he’s written for entrepreneurs on his website.

He also includes a link to an 89-page Guidebook for Technology Entrepreneurs along with some spreadsheet templates, all from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

BOTTOMLINE: It's not just about writing the perfect business plan, then pursuing VC funding until you get a boatload of money. Use the tools and experience from professionals who have been there-done that. Don't go it alone.

(Tip of the hat to Anthony Cerminaro)

Change Management - and Embracing Change

Skip Angel, over at Random Thoughts of a CTO, post this thought-provoking entry on "Embracing Change."

His assertions?

• You can't be a leader if you are unwilling to embrace change.
• To be a successful leader, you must be proactive and make changes now that will avoid the "break" in the future to be much more significant.
• Ease the change carefully and communicate constantly (including listening) to make sure that people can see the value and need for change but also to reduce conflicts and risks through the process.

Change presents itself in a variety of ways:

• People change (or leave), with them you lose skills and particularly knowledge that will need to be transferred to others. Sometimes that it is easy, sometimes it requires reorganization.
• Technologies change. Products can become discontinued, or support become limited because the company has moved to newer technologies. Therefore, the tools you use in your work would need to change.
• Markets and customers change. Whole new markets or different "players" because of mergers and acquistions. Therefore, you might see changes in your products and services that you didn't anticipate.

BOTTOMLINE: Skip's assertion: "Sticking with the status quo with all of these kinds of changes could not only stop working but could get you quickly off-course. Therefore, if you want things to keep flowing, you got to be one step ahead on where the flow is taking you and make course corrections as needed. Those that can successfully do that, without major impact to the organization, are considered great leaders."

Baby-Boomer Transitions: Part II

This just in from the recent Newsweek cover story on Boomers.

According to the Merrill Lynch New Retirement Survey, 81% of boomers expect to keep working past 65, but their professional goals will shift.

Says Ken Dychtwald, president of Age Wave:

"You have corporate CEOs who want to be schoolteachers, and marketing managers who'd really rather run a coffee shop, bookkeepers who want to join the Peace Corps. They'll work fewer hours or only eight months a year, and they won't be as concerned about having the biggest office or the most lucrative job. It will be more important to do something they enjoy."

BOTTOMLINE:

(Thanks to Evelyn at Worthwhile Magazine for the tip)

Small Business Optimism Continues

The latest

77% said they plan to take steps to boost employee retention.

Seven Steps to Career Growth and Excellence

Anthony Cerminaro, strategic business and technology attorney who authors BizzBangBuzz (and a fellow native from Pittsburgh!) offers this entry on Seven Steps to Career Growth and Excellence.

1. Make a Commitment to Excellence...
2. Empower Yourself and Others by Continuing to Learn...
3. Multiply Your Efforts through Networking...
4. Communicate Powerfully...
5. Lead with Empathy...
6. Maintain Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Fitness...
7. Serve with Love, Faith, and Gratitude...

The entire article that Anthony references is located here.

Goal Setting And Extending SMART to SMARTER

Good friend Phil Gerbyshak over at MakeItGreat.Org offers a good extension to the the SMART principle of goal setting, making it even ....SMARTER.

Remember that SMART in goal setting means that all goals must be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Accountable
• Realistic
• Target

Phil's extension to SMART?

• Goals should be Exciting. Exciting goals will be met far sooner than boring, bland goals.
• Goals should be Recorded, in a place where you can look at it every day

Tip of the hat to Phil for this one!

Managing For The Upside

Accenture offers this free 38 page PDF through BetterManagement.com that discusses anorganization’s ability to learn, grow and refresh itself -- is critical to high performance.

Offered in the article are five contrarian principles for making it happen:

1. Reach beyond your grasp
2. Blaze your own trail
3. Create a strong emotional field
4. Spiral up
5. Use luck as an accelerator

Good reading here!

Management Tools and Trends

Bain & Company is a global business management consulting firm, founded in 1973 on the principle that consultants should deliver results - not just reports - to their clients.

Since 1973, their 2,200 management consultants have worked for over 2,700 clients in virtually every industry, in 31 offices in 19 countries.

My point in all of this?

Take advantage of their global insights at Bain & Company's 2005 Management Tools & Trends

Bain's survey finds that the influence of technology on management tools choices is taking hold.

Check it out!

A Vision of Leadership

Interesting visual "eye-candy" here using an interactive graphic model that reconciles the leadership values of:

• Lead and follow
• Implement and innovate

The model also explores Leadership Practices and Outcomes

Good stuff here from Strategies for Leadership.

Good To Great for Social Sectors

Todd over at 800-CEO-READ broke the news that management author Jim Collins is releasing a 42 page monograph titled Good To Great and Social Sectors.

This short piece is written to address questions that social sector organizations have asked since the GTG was released.

The monograph will start shipping November 15th. You can place your preorders now.

Read all about the details here.


(Thank to Todd for the tip!)

Natural Advantages of Small Businesses

John Jantsch, over at the very useful "Duct Tape Marketing" site, offers his talking points for an upcoming presentation, titled the "10 Natural Marketing Advantages of Small Business. "

In it, he looks at leveraging the natural (competitive) advantages of small businesses.

• Focus
• Reach
• Nurture
• Surprise
• Transform
• Partner
• Automate
• Educate
• Meaning
• Play

BOTTOMLINE: Acting like a small business, it seams, is the latest killer innovation. Think small.

A Season of Inspiration: Part II

Taking time once again...to make the connection between inspiration and excellence.

Take some time today..

...to be inspired...

...to take a fresh new approach

...to appreciate such natural brilliance and excellence

...to be in awe of it all

Perserverance and Persistance

In her entry called "True Grit," Lisa Haneberg over at Management Craft talks about an article in the December issue of Psychology Today, called "The Winning Edge."

The essence:

• Perserverance and persistance - or grit, makes a significant difference in achievement.
• Grit can be developed

Ways to nurture grit include:

• Helping people find their passion
• Providing criticism lessons
• Be a model of gritiness
• Offer challenges
• Teach people to handle and learn from failure
• Don't worry about balance

Grit. Good stuff. The article is available online, and definitely worth reading.

(Tip of the hat to Lisa!)

It All Starts With Passion

Our good friend Skip, over at Random Thoughts of a CTO, posts a great entry on a topic very near and dear to my professional and personal heart: passion.

Skip's main observation?

"Intensity, cause, implusion, quality of mind, purpose, and having a fixed resolution -- yep, that sounds like me and those kind of people who I most like to work with. It also sounds like the scenario for the perfect company that I would like to be a part of."

BOTTOMLINE: "It starts with you. Where is your passion? Can you use your passion in your current role within your current organization. If not, look for other places where you can. If there still is a potential fit with the organization, start getting others involved and triggering their passion. Sometimes passion has always been there, but never triggered. Other times, passion was there but need to be re-ignited. Find it! Use It! Help others do the same!"

Here! Here!

Integrated Learning - And Knowledge Management

If you've been following "the overarching thread"...

... you've learned that the Six Disciplines Methodology of business-building is an integration of best practices of the following business tenets:

• Strategic Planning
• Quality Management
• Integrated Learning
• Business Process Automation
• People Performance Management
• Measure-Driven Improvement

Elearnspace had this interesting perspective on the issue of knowledge management (KM), which is at the core of Integrated Learning, or what many refer to as "organizational learning."

Their assessment?

• It's all about learning - KM, information management, elearning, performance support, content management, etc.
• KM is not a thing to itself. It's a tool for organizational learning (and, as a by product, organizational effectiveness or capacity to achieve intended goals/strategies).
• Those who over-hyped KM (and made a valuable concept largely meaningless) fail to understand that KM was never about managing knowledge.
• It was, and still is, about achieving other goals. It's a means.

High-Performance Businesses: Timing is Everything

In an article entitled "The Right Place, The Right Time", the Accenture authors look into the key elements of high-performance business leaders and their timing.

High-performance businesses have remarkable clarity when it comes to setting strategic direction, especially regarding big decisions. They always seem to be in the right place at the right time.

• When one market matures, they’re ready with the next big thing;
• When buying trends send customers in a different direction, they’re waiting at the end of the path
• When they acquire new businesses, they do so wisely and tend to them well

High performers excel when it comes to their market focus and position—the “where and how to compete” aspects of business strategy and one of the three building blocks of high performance:

1. How to manage for today and tomorrow
2. How to best “parent” the businesses they operate
3. How to compete through organization design

BOTTOMLINE: The ability of high-performance businesses to ride their decision making to better market focus and position does not mean they are infallible. High performers maintain their focus on consistently making good strategic component decisions. Above all, constancy (persistence) and diligence set high performers apart.

Read the entire Accenture article here.

Business Process Terms and Organizational Learning

For many organizations, the road to lasting business excellence means learning new things, new habits, new processes.

One aspect of that learning comes from within. It's often a matter of simply understanding new terms (definitions) of common business processes.

Perhaps you've heard of a term or business process, but weren't quite sure of its definition? The key to understanding is clarity.

Here's a great resources that you can use: The Dictionary of Small Business

BOTTOMLINE: Link to it, use it often, make sure all your Team Members know where it is - its all part of building a learning organization.


(Thanks to Steve over at Small Business CEO for the tip)

Process is Vital To Lasting Excellence

Our friend Gary, over at High Performance Business, offers his advice here in "You Need A System for Your Business" -talking about the virtues of having a "system" for your business.

In today's world of "strategic-initiative-of-the-day" and other equally insane knee-jerk reactions, having a system is the major difference between high-performing organizations, and ones that will never get there.

The key points of having a system are essentially a systematic way of thinking about and executing on your strategy. Gary's observation that "your system should be documented in an Operations Manual" -- is spot on.

Only by developing clear, concise business processes will you be able to document how your business works. Think of franchises: how is it that McDonald's is consistent, predictable, systematic - at every location? They've documented their processes. So that everyone in the organization know what, how and why they need to do their activities -- in order to be successful.

BOTTOMLINE: An operations manual has many benefits - execution, consistency, repeatability. The Six Disciplines Business System takes the use of creating and documenting your business processes in an "Operations Manual" to the next level. All of your business processes - from simple ones like ordering new phones or business cards for new Team Members -- to complex ones like setting up new project initiatives -- can be set up in the business system. All online (no paper here!) - exposed to everyone within the organization, searchable by any keyword in the process, with embedded links to actual business processes and on-line learning.