by CoachKevin | September 12th, 2011
Are you ready to ignite your company’s growth in 2012?
Then come to this Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Four Decisions™ Executive Workshop on November 2 in Vancouver, B.C.
This one-day workshop is for CEOs and their leadership teams who want to align their team and create an action-oriented strategic plan for profitable growth in the year ahead.
In my coaching practice, I have had the opportunity to use many different tools to help companies improve their performance; yet, I have voluntarily chosen the Rockefeller Habits methodology, created by Verne Harnish, because it is by far the best set of tools and techniques available to help businesses sustain positive and profitable growth. The One-Page Strategic Plan is also, in my opinion, the most effective way to plan and get plans executed in a way that improves a company’s performance.
During this one-day Mastering…
by CoachKevin | September 12th, 2011
Entrepreneurs spend years building their business, investing considerable money, time and effort to make it a success. But what happens when it’s time to step down? This Wall Street Journal article: Disney, Walton, Ford, Gates: Tales of When Legends Leave profiles four different visions of succession and what happened at Disney, Wal-Mart, Ford and Microsoft.
Coach Kevin’s Challenge:
- Do you have a succession plan in place for when you step down? If you’re thinking about stepping down in less than five years, it’s time to develop a plan.
- Identify the top five most important aspects of your business that need to live on when you step down. Use them to choose and groom your successor.
by CoachKevin | July 27th, 2011
by CoachKevin | June 13th, 2011
I recently read a quote that was shared in a newsletter from strategy expert, Kaihan Krippendorff:
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than 5 minutes.” – Albert Einstein
Kaihan was explaining the difference between force and power and shared the following:
Force is sweat and effort and anger and passion. Force has a payoff – it rallies – but it usually comes at overwhelming cost…
Power, on the other hand, is more delicate to handle. It involves cold calculation, patience and precision. Power is being willing to sit and plan through passion that screams at you to get up and do something….
Whatever you are up to in this world – building a…
by CoachKevin | June 6th, 2011
I
participated in a monthly meeting for a client and the CFO, who was running the meeting, did a simple, brilliant thing: he put the Rules of Engagement (guidelines they had developed to define the expected conduct in the meeting) on the screen at the start of the meeting to set the tone of the meeting.
The important point here is that we had developed these a few quarters back but somehow they had slipped into the background as many policies do. They had them, but they were not top of mind, so now they are permanently point #1 on their monthly agenda. Simple and powerful system.
Coach Kevin’s Challenge:
- Have you defined your “Rules of Engagement” or “Code of Conduct” (I think the first one sounds better) for your executive team and/or the rest of your company? If you have, excellent – if not, this may be a good discussion…
by CoachKevin | June 1st, 2011
McKinsey is featuring Google chairman, Eric Schmidt in a video series worth watching. You’ll have to register on the McKinsey site if you are not already registered. In the first clip titled: Hiring and Recruiting, you’ll hear Google’s perspective on hiring the best and brightest in the industry. Interestingly, they were conducting between eight to ten interviews with candidates and then not hiring them. So they analyzed the situation and determined that they could make a hiring decision in five interviews. Schmidt also shares how there must be “discord plus deadline” in meetings for them to be effective and to drive business results.
Check out the video on Hiring and Recruiting and then I would love to hear your thoughts. Would these concepts be useful in your business?
by CoachKevin | May 30th, 2011
I came across this short story recently, which really emphasizes how our energy can affect others; as leaders this is crucial. As you read it, consider the following key points:
- The energy we have when we enter any new environment has a tremendous impact on the people in that place.
- We are in charge of our energy and how we use it when enter a new place or meeting.
- There are mechanisms, such as you’ll see in the story, we can use to enter our various environments with the right mindset and energy.
- Most people just show up as they are an are often not the best version of themselves.
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by CoachKevin | March 24th, 2011
I am working with many clients to help them navigate through change leveraging many principles inside this amazing book – Our Iceberg is Melting – alongside my own principles and techniques. At first glance, you may wonder why I’m referencing a book based on a fable about a penguin colony in Antarctica but when you come to understand the 8 Steps for Leading Change shared by Harvard professor Dr. John Kotter and how embracing change or failing to embrace change is impacting your organization, you’ll soon see how this penguin colony could actually be in your own company.
Often when business leaders launch a new initiative, program or project, half way through it, the project fails. If you don’t get full employee (or customer) buy in at the very beginning, you will get nothing but trouble.
And most…
by CoachKevin | March 23rd, 2011
Ever thought you could hide from the data permeating throughout your company? I hope not! CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders should read this inspiring article about how Alan Mulally is turning around Ford from bankruptcy to the most profitable automaker in the world.
One of the most interesting insights I found in this article is that Mulally has a weekly 2.5 hour Business Plan Review meeting with the 15 top Ford executives. In this meeting, Mulally’s direct reports are required to “post more than 300 charts, each of them color-coded red, yellow, or green to indicate problems, caution, or progress.” There’s no hiding from data with Mulally at the helm. As he says, “You can’t manage a secret. When you do this every week, you can’t hide.”
Clearly,…
