Shared commitments are much more powerful than rules in business partnerships. Rule-based organizations depend on a hierarchy and chain of command to keep the order and presumably to ensure quality. Shared commitments are negotiated agreements between equals that ensure people win together. The “shared” part means everyone agrees and abides by the agreements. No one gets a special pass. The “commitment” part [...]
Trust is never automatic. It only happens when people assume accountability for everything in the service/value chain, meaning everyone in that team needs to be aligned and committed. In coaching and teaching good leadership, it is important to note that trust between people is an outcome of how people feel treated. It’s the result of a sequence of three crucial principles that can be measured, trained, and perfected: First, sincerity. Team members measure sincerity when they ask: Do [...]
“An enterprise leader one Monday morning, asked me if I was calling him about his low numbers from last week,” shared Ray Kowalik, CEO of Burns & McDonnell. Kowalik was the speaker at the virtual Good Leadership Breakfast this past Friday – the subject was How accountability increases with the feeling of ownership. Kowalik continued to explain how many of [...]
The speaker for the Good Leadership Breakfast online this Friday describes himself: "I'm a corporate type during the week, but I love the get your hands dirty type of sports on the weekends." Ray Kowalik, the CEO of Burns & McDonnell, will share his insights on the theme: How Accountability Improves with the Feeling of Ownership. He's probably the most [...]
“I notice I’m having a really hard time focusing, and listening these days. I’ve lost most of my interest in Zoom meetings…and I’m extremely conscious about how others on those video calls are seeing me on those calls. I am constantly wondering if I’m meeting expectations. It’s exhausting.” “I just returned from a vacation, and I feel like I [...]
Finding clarity, with uncertain plans Now more than ever, we are looking forward to what the future holds, and find ourselves making plans for the next few months. However, for most team leaders, this means taking the time to step back and analyze how well their team has been performing and what needs improvement. Through conversations with numerous leaders, [...]
Last Friday we hosted the first Good Leadership Breakfast of 2021 with guest speaker Bruce DeWitt, CEO of Testek. The conversation with Bruce centered around the idea of Operational Assurance, which he implemented within his own organization to great success. Operational Assurance means: Directors and managers deliver on the day-to-day tactics, so the executive team can deliver on transformational [...]
This Friday marks the return of the Good Leadership Breakfast - free, virtually, online. Through the encouragement and generosity of a vibrant group of sponsors, the breakfast is will be beamed across the land from a TV studio in Minneapolis. The 9 AM central time broadcast allows for clients and friends from east to west coasts to tap into [...]
New term: Pivot Fatigue One term that I've been hearing a lot of lately is "Pivot Fatigue." Referring to the exhaustion that is setting in as: Plans keep changing and changing – both personally and professionally Working from home has lost its luster: what seemed like newly-captured productivity in 2020, has turned into a feeling of being trapped by Zoom Schools [...]
For ten years, we've started all of our engagements with the Good Leadership Coin ( it looks like a poker chip ) which displays two important questions – one on each side: What’s possible? What’s not acceptable? From my point of view, it's the team leader's job is to keep both questions top of mind in all interactions – with [...]