I’m going old-school with today’s message – it’s going to be direct, and to the point…focus on performance. One of my pet peeves is the voluminous amount of management speak and self-help propaganda currently in circulation designed to codify a lack of performance. I’m an individual that believes in clear and direct communication, so I’ll spare you the rhetoric and just do what I do best…cut to the chase. Put simply, the formula for success, what truly differentiates you, is that you either PERFORM or your don’t.

The text that follows is not going to nurture you, nor will it serve as a disingenuous pat on the back…I’m not going to tell you what a nice person you are, but I am going to ask you to lose the excuses, rationalizations, justifications, platitudes, theories, and spin and just get the job done. This message is about zeroing-in on the main difference between the impact players and the wannabes…its called delivering a certainty of execution. Don’t give me excuses…give me results.

See if this rings true…have you ever noticed that it seems to be those soothsayers who can wax eloquent in the planning stages, that always just seem to fall flat on their face when it comes to the implementation? Again, in an effort to keep it simple, don’t tell me; show me! A great strategy that cannot be executed is not a great strategy at all…it is a failed strategy. Let me put it this way…It’s pretty darn hard to look smart if you cannot deliver the goods. 

Think of any successful leader and you’ll find they consistently get the job done. They accomplish the mission; they find a way to win; they execute. Sadly, all it really takes to stand out in today’s business world is to follow through on your commitments. It doesn’t matter where you went to school, how smart you are, what your title is, or any number of other considerations…if you want to succeed, learn to honor your commitments and execute. 

The best advice I can give you is to immediately cease and desist from majoring in minors, learn to harness your passion, leverage your resources, be disciplined in your approach, and always focus on performance. Contrasted with an earlier statement above, it’s hard to appear as anything other than smart when you are a master of execution and performance. Few things speak to a leader’s ability like consistently putting points on the scoreboard…

When things don’t go as expected, what do you do? The best leaders always have a back-up plan, so my question to you is: what’s your Plan B? My experience with most executives & entrepreneurs is that they are totally committed to and focused on success. As a result, many of them tend to have a major blind-spot (translation: weakness) when it comes to the anticipation of set-backs.  While this is understandable, it is nonetheless naive, and it constitutes a major flaw in the business logic of most strategic plans. This is so much the case that the most often overlooked aspect of strategic planning is adequately addressing contingencies as part of the planning process. In the text that follows, I’ll take a closer look at the value of contingency planning…

The reality surrounding the success of any implementation is found by understanding that no matter how smart you are, things rarely go as planned. Those that plan in advance for changes in circumstances can adroitly address issues when they occur, while those who must deal with “unforeseen” circumstances don’t tend to fare as well. Smart leaders view obstacles as a constant rather than a variable, and incorporate that thinking into their planning.  Any well crafted strategy anticipates obstacles and factors in multiple “what if” scenarios.  Leaders that wait until a problem occurs to deal with it place themselves and their organization at a huge strategic disadvantage.

The two most common outcomes created by a lack of contingency planning are: 1.) watching things grind to a halt as you scramble to evaluate options, and; 2.) having fewer options to assess based upon the new found time constraint. Speed is your friend and should be leveraged to your advantage. Speed is aided by anticipation and slowed by a lack thereof. Smart leaders will do everything in their power to keep a decreae in velocity from becoming a self imposed adversary due to a lack of contingency planning.

It is important to remember that contingency planning is a key to avoiding costly mistakes. In most cases your wins won’t put you out of business, but your losses most certainly can. The three most critical items to focus on when conducting your planning are:

1. Insure that personal accountability is present on any major benchmark, milestone or deliverable.  
2. Make sure that someone has identified the 5 worst things that could happen with any initiative, what steps can be taken to prevent their occurrence, and what measures will be taken to overcome them if they happen?
3. Make sure that advance warning signs for potential failures are identified and understood so that you have plenty of runway in front of you to implement your contingency plans.

My final suggestion is that you take the time to review all mission critical plans to insure that the proper contingency plans have been put into place.  

Sidebar: This post was inspired by a conversation I had last month Mark Oakes (@MarkOOakes) about the historical origin of the term” Plan B.” As told by Mark, the story goes like this: Baron Von Bismark was tasked with unifying the axis powers in WW1. He had his aids work for months preparing the perfect unification plan. Upon completion they wanted to immediately put it into action. Bismark said “NO…prepare a second plan in the event the first doesn’t work.” It became knows as ‘Plan B’ (B)ismark Plan = Plan ‘B’

I had a long conversation today with a client discussing creativity, ideas, innovation, branding and the like. As a result of our conversation, I decided to dust-off an old post, give it a few updates, and pass along my thoughts, which can be best summarized as “Ideas Don’t Equal Innovation.“ It is my hope to help dispel the myth that ideas are inherently good things. Let me state right from the outset that I place little value on ideas. Not only do raw ideas have little intrinsic value, but they are often very costly. While I stipulate to the fact that ideas can sometimes lead to great things, I also submit that it is more frequently the case that ideas lead to disappointment, and even outright disaster. Those of you familiar with my work are probably wondering if it is really me authoring this text…if you’re baffled at how a champion of innovation can simultaneously be an idea-basher, I urge you to read on, and I promise the congruity will become apparent.

I want to start by actually defining what an idea is, and is not. Ideas in and of themselves do not constitute a philosophy, principle, or strategy. An idea is not synonymous with a competitive advantage, an idea is not necessarily a sign of creativity, an idea does not constitute innovation, and as much as some people wish it was so, an idea is certainly not a business. To the chagrin of many reading this post, ideas in and of themselves are nothing more than unrefined, random thoughts. Ideas on their own accord are really quite useless. The truth can often times be harsh and difficult to hear, but it is nonetheless the truth.

Ideas are a dime a dozen…take a moment and reflect on all the ideas you’ve spawned over the years, or the many ideas that have been birthed by your friends, family, and professional associates and you’ll quickly see that most of them never got lift-off. The problem is that most ideas never get implemented, and moreover even the best ideas when improperly implemented can cause great harm. You see, while creativity is a clearly a valuable asset, unbridled creativity where random, disparate ideas abound outside of a sound decisioning and execution framework will create distraction and chaos much more often than they will lead to innovation.

In fact, it is most often the organizations that demonstrate a “heard mentality” when rushing to adopt the latest ideas that are the farthest thing away from being innovative. The net result of being a late stage trend follower is that you will likely experience little more than yet another in a long line of great adventures that ended in frustration due to the time wasted and the investment squandered.  The reality is that many businesses are quick to recognize great ideas, but they often have no plan for how to successfully integrate them into their business model.

My advice to you is not to let your business get caught up in embracing random ideas At least not without some initial analysis being conducted to determine the likelihood of success. Failed initiatives are costly at several levels. Aside from being costly, a flawed execution can cast doubt on management credibility, have a negative impact on morale, taint the brand, adversely affect external relationships, and cause a variety of other problems for your business.

Every sound business initiative begins with a solid strategic plan. However while most anyone can cobble together a high level strategic plan, very few can author a strategy that can be successfully implemented. In order for your enterprise to turn an idea into a monetizing and/or value creating event you should develop a strategic plan that attempts to measure the idea against the following 15 elements:

1. The idea should be generated within a solid framework for decisioning. It should be developed as a solution to a problem or to exploit an opportunity. The idea should be in alignment with the overall vision and mission of the enterprise.

2. If the idea doesn’t provide a unique competitive advantage it should at least bring you closer to an even playing field.

3. Any new idea should preferably add value to existing initiatives, and if not, it should show a significant enough return on investment to justify the dilutive effect of not keeping the main thing the main thing.

4. Put the idea through a risk/reward and cost/benefit analysis.

5. Whether the new idea is intended for your organization, vendors, suppliers, partners or customers it must easy to use. Usability drives adoptability, and therefore it pays to keep things simple.

6. Just because an idea sounds good doesn’t mean it is You should endeavor to validate proof of concept based upon detailed, credible research.

7. Nothing is without risk, and when you think something is without risk, that is when you’re most likely to end-up in trouble. All initiatives surrounding new ideas should include detailed risk management provisions.

8. Adopting a new idea should be based upon solid business logic that drives corresponding financial engineering and modeling. Be careful of high level, pie-in-the-sky projections.

9. Any new ideas should contain accountability provisions. Every task should be assigned and managed according to a plan and in the light of day.

10. Any new ideas being adopted must lead to measurable objectives. Deliverables, benchmarks, deadlines, and success metrics must be incorporated into the plan.

11. It must be detailed and deliverable on a schedule. The initiative should have a beginning, middle and end.

12. Ideas need to be incorporated into strategic initiatives and not constitute disparate systems. They should be incorporated into integrated solutions that eliminate redundancies, and build in tactical leverage points.

13. Ideas should contain a road-map for versioning and evolution that is in alignment with other strategic initiatives and the overall corporate mission.

14. A successful idea cannot remain in a strategic planning state. It must be actionable through tactical implementation.

15. Senior leadership must champion any new idea being adopted. If someone at the C-suite level is against the new idea, it will likely die on the cutting-room floor.

The bottom line is that new ideas are beautiful things when they become solutions or lead to opportunities. Properly implemented, capitalizing on process driven creativity can keep business from stagnating and cause growth and evolution. Just follow the 15 rules above and avoid being the misguided change agent for solely for the sake of change.

Leaders need to take great care to avoid creating a culture of no. There seems to be a popular movement afoot that believes the word “no” is the super antidote to the far inferior word “yes.” There are many well known axioms espousing the benefits of learning to use the word no with greater frequency. In fact, there are some very bright people that believe you cannot become a good leader without developing a mastery for using the word no as evidenced by the following quote from Tony Blair: “The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes.” I couldn’t disagree more…In today’s post I’ll share my thoughts on what I refer to as the fallacy of no.

Let me ask you a few simple questions: How do you feel when you’re told no? Does it leave you feeling positive about yourself? Does it make you feel like your contributions and opinions are valued? While inherently obvious, it should not go unnoticed that the use of the word no is 100% negative. The word no ends discussions, stifles creativity, kills innovation, impedes learning, and gates initiative. Put simply, the word no advances nothing, grows nothing, builds nothing and incentivizes nothing. No is not all it’s cracked-up to be…

Let me put it to you another way…If as a leader you find yourself always saying no, what does that tell you about your leadership ability? It means your vision is not understood, your team is not aligned and your talent is not performing up to par. It means you’re not teaching, mentoring, communicating, or leading.  The perception that strong leaders say no and weak leaders say yes is simply flawed thinking. A constant stream of “no’s” is not a positive sign, it’s a warning sign that needs to be heeded.

The most common reasons people tend to cite in support of using no is it helps to keep them from wasting time, that is somehow manages risk, and that it helps them focus by not biting off more than they can chew. These agendas are better accomplished with clear communication, effective collaboration, and prudent resourcing – not by saying no. Great leaders help people get to a yes - in other words, they teach them how not to receive a no. Rather than just kill something with a quick no, a good leader uses every  adverse scenario as a development opportunity to help people advance their critical thinking and decisioning skills. 

While I understand that there are times when using no may be your only option, those times should be the exception and not the rule. Bottom line…Yes is not a sign of weakness – it’s a sign of intelligent leadership. Next time you’re tempted to say no, do yourself a big favor and find a way to work around the obstacle and toward a yes.

After reading Seth Godin’s book Linchpin, I was reminded of the volume of  information circulating of late espousing the benefits of making yourself indispensable to your employer. While this mantra has clearly gained some traction, if not actually becoming quite popular, popular thinking does not necessarily equate to sound thinking. Let me be as clear as I can – nobody, and I mean nobody is indispensable. I don’t care who you are, what role you play, or what your title is…if you perceive yourself to be indispensable, you are setting yourself up for a very rude awakening.  Furthermore, anyone who by design sets out to orchestrate a situation to make themselves indispensable is not operating in good faith. In today’s post I’m going to share my thoughts as to why the myth of becoming indispensable is very dangerous thinking to say the least…  

A well managed company does not allow itself to become dependent upon the performance of any single individual. Those individuals who attempt to hoard knowledge, relationships, or resources to attain job security should not to be valued or viewed as indispensable, but should be admonished as ineffective and deemed a liability. Corporate talent that cannot be shared, duplicated, distributed, or leveraged is not nearly as valuable as talent that can.

So, where has all this recent self-indulgent, misguided thinking come from? I believe much of it stems from the self-help types that proliferate the concept of self-promotion for self-benefit over the concept of service above self. As I mentioned earlier, more distressing is that this concept was recently validated in Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin.  

Let me begin by stating that I’m a Seth Godin fan. While I agree with him more often than not, I will from time-to-time find myself shaking my head wondering what in the heck could Seth possibly be thinking? In his recent book Linchpin, Seth Godin puts forth some great concepts that we should all aspire to. I wholeheartedly agree that each of us should become the best we can be, that our work should become developed and refined to the point where it is viewed as art, and we are seen as the artist behind the masterpiece. So much of what you’ll read in between the covers of Linchpin is as close to inspirational brilliance as you’ll find in a business book, which is why it pains me to have to point out the critical flaw in Linchpin that regrettably overshadows the highlights – namely the concept of the linchpin itself. 

Seth describes a linchpin as somebody in an organization who is indispensable - who simply cannot be replaced because their role is just far too unique and valuable. Making things worse, he then goes on to say how important it is for all of us to become indispensable, for not to be indispensable is tantamount to economic and career suicide. Encouraging somebody to make the most of their talents and abilities is quite laudable – encouraging them to become indispensable is validating a new level of self worship that I find quite troubling.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that anyone who sets out to make themselves indispensable would be the one committing career suicide for two reasons: 1.) anyone who is ”perceived” as indispensable in their current role completely eliminates any possibility of promotion, and; 2.) Any good leadership team who finds themselves dependant upon a linchpin will immediately move to mitigate the risk of finding themselves in such an untenable position.

It is an organization’s ability to collect and convert data into information, turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into an operating advantage that allows an enterprise to effectively address current needs as well as to strategically drive innovation and forward planning. This cannot happen if one person positions themselves as a linchpin. Put more simply, a corporation’s employees must be able to acquire knowledge (learning), transfer knowledge (out of the head and into an information system), apply knowledge (from the information system into an actionable event), manage knowledge (execute with focus, timing and precision), and secure knowledge (keep it from evaporating or even worse from walking out the door to a competitor). Let’s see if we can bring this issue a bit closer to home for some of you…Ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you ever had a disruption in business continuity because someone who possessed a wealth of experience and/or information retired, quit or was terminated?
• Have you ever lost a deal or had a major operational problem because somewhere in your organization you found yourself dependent upon a single person’s expertise and they dropped the ball?
• Have you ever found yourself in the unenviable position of desiring to terminate an employee only to be held hostage by the fear of losing the knowledge that they possess?

While I could go on ad-nauseum with day-to-day operating examples of how a linchpin can adversely affect a business, I think I’ve probably dredged-up enough painful memories for now. As a CEO or entrepreneur, the fact that you would allow an employee to become indispensable to begin with means that at a minimum you have a lack of transparency and continuity in your organization, and more probably that you lack depth of talent and are weak in process and knowledge management.

How would you answer this question…Is your company talent poor and linchpin dependent, or talent rich or linchpin independent? From my perspective there is a monumental difference between real tier-one talent and a primadonna who thinks of themselves as indispensable. Employees who represent true tier-one talent see themselves as part of the team seeking to make those around them more successful. Contrast this with those primadonnas who are interested solely in their own success without regard to those around them. Any company that bestows a primadonna with recognition as somehow being indispensable, is a company about ready to experience a completely avoidable disaster. 

If you want to eliminate unnecessary dependencies, don’t allow any individual to create ultimate domain over anything that is considered key or mission critical. Instead create a culture that values transparency, knowledge management, mentoring, coaching, and process. By doing these things you will add both depth and breadth to your organization and increase the overall level of talent across the enterprise. Bottom line…encourage people to be a valuable part of the team, to maximize their contribution to others and the overall enterprise, but under no circumstances allow someone be become the proverbial cog in the wheel.

While candor is often trivialized or viewed as less than tasteful, it nonetheless rates very highly in my book. I want people to know where I stand, and vice-versa. I’m not suggesting that we don’t use tact in our communications, but people have become far too sensitive for my tastes. So my question is this: Have you been told that you have a bit of an edge? If so, you have likely found that it serves you very well. Let me be clear that when I refer to an edge I’m not talking about rough edges, or confusing an edgy presence with rude or arrogant behavior. What I am refering to is having a direct, no B.S. approach that allows you to get right to the heart of an issue in the shortest time-frame possible. 

On several occasions I’ve received that “I can’t believe you just said that” look from clients. In fact, one interaction in particular does a good job of conveying the value of having an edge…I had a client look directly at me and say: “If I spoke to my clients like that they would fire me right on the spot…How do you get away with that?” My question back to him was: “Why don’t you fire me?” His response: “because you tell me what I need to hear as opposed to what you think I want to hear, and I value that.” My reply: “That’s how I get away with it.”

Most people value candor, and if they don’t, I’ve found that they tend to live in an ego-centric, altered state of denial that will result in many unnecessary hardships. I coined the following phrase to address these delusional types: “Those who seek shelter in the wisdom of sound counsel must also be willing to take refuge there…Those unwilling to do the latter, really don’t value the former.” 

I’ve never been accused of being politically correct, or a shrinking violet. In fact, my edge is a large part of my competitive value proposition. I don’t sugar coat, gloss-over, or spin…rather I tell you what you need to hear, which is always the truth, regardless of whether or not it is easy to swallow. My clients tell me that having someone to hold them accountable, challenge their business logic, force them out of comfort zones, and tell them the truth is a rarity in the marketplace (remember that scarcity = value).

As a validation for what I’ve communicated above, among the most common requests received by coaching referral services are inquiries looking for “strong” coaches. The simple truth of the matter is that I’ve rarely encountered a successful professional advisor, entrepreneur, executive, or any leader for that matter who doesn’t have a bit of an edge. 

Here’s another question: How sharp is your edge? We’ve all come across those people in our lives who don’t just possess an edge, but they have taken their edge to a completely different level having honed it to a razor’s edge…These people not only possess the qualities espoused above, but they have also learned how to appropriately leverage their edge by using it for the right purpose at the right time. Whether they use their edge as a subtle carving tool used for shaping and refining, a surgical blade used to implement change, as a lightning rod for shock-and-awe purposes, or a defensive instrument of protection, they know when to use it, and when to keep it in check. So, I ask again…Do you have and edge, and if so, how sharp is your edge?

Much to the chagrin of traditional PR firms, the practice of public relations is changing faster than most firms can keep pace with. If the image to the left even remotely resembles how you feel when you interact with your PR firm, then it’s time to rethink things…Traditional firms who define their practice by writing press releases and conducting media pitches are seeing clients jump ship faster than politicians can sling mud. PR firms that “get it” have surpassed advertising agencies moving into the forefront of brand building, digital marketing, social media marketing, reputation management, and influence peddling. In this week’s column I share my thoughts on the changing landscape of public relations…

In today’s ultra competitive global economy, the battle to win the hearts and minds of very broad and diverse constituencies has never been more critical or challenging. Savvy corporate clients are no longer settling for old school PR, and have mandated that both the strategy and tactics of PR evolve to meet the fluidity of market demands. Public relations is no longer about agency interns and thirty-something staffers pitching a story idea, or attempting to book a speaking engagement. Rather PR done right has everything to do with a new generation of influence agents who leverage relationships to open doors and markets, create buzz across mediums and geographies, who carefully protect and manage reputations, and who build dominant personal and corporate brands.  

A good PR initiative in today’s world transcends media relations…It enables the achievement of client business objectives through whatever ethical means are required to get the job done while increasing brand equity in the process. If your PR firm cannot break through political barriers via lobbying efforts, help facilitate joint ventures and strategic partnerships, manage personal or corporate reputations online, and build a dominant brand then you have the wrong agency on retainer.

I’m always amazed at the substantial budgets companies expend with PR firms who not only fail to deliver, but who actually tarnish their client’s brand. The market is fraught with recent examples of sophomoric efforts on the part of name brand PR firms who have flubbed blogging and social media initiatives, mismanaged publicity stunts, crossed ethical boundaries, and otherwise have placed their clients in untenable situations. The bottom line is that when it comes to protecting and advancing your brand through the creation and execution of sound business opportunities, don’t just buy into a pitch from an old-line agency that has not proven that they have transitioned their practice to the realities of the current business climate. 

In the final analysis when it comes to selecting a PR firm don’t buy a pitch, be sold on a brand, or even the brands that an agency has represented in the past. Rather look at the recent growth of the agency while considering who you want as a strategic business partner, who understands your business objectives, and who can deliver the results…

Time; it’s the most valuable commodity we have, it’s the only thing we all have in common, yet it’s how we choose to spend it that defines and differentiates us as individuals. Even though time is a key success metric, I am always amazed at how many executives don’t manage it as such. Time is indeed a precious and finite commodity, and those professionals that manage it wisely are those that achieve the greatest results. Show me an executive that doesn’t leverage time to its highest and best use and I’ll show you an executive likely to be replaced by one that can. In this week’s column I’ll examine the value of time.

The proper understanding of how to use time directly impacts income. You see, time doesn’t slow, nor can it be accelerated or recovered; it can only be wasted, invested, or leveraged. I often hear people espouse the axiom “don’t work hard, work smart.” I have a bit of a different take on the subject as I work very hard at working intelligently. It was coming to an understanding of these fundamental principles at an early age that have made a tremendous difference in my life as contrasted with many others I’ve encountered along the way.

Whether you are a sales person, professional advisor, entrepreneur, or executive, you only have 24 hours in a day, which consists of 1440 minutes, and when reduced to the ridiculous amounts to 86,400 seconds. If you want to do more, earn more, serve more, influence more, or significantly change the level of your impact in any area, you simply must make more out of the time you have at your disposal. So, my question is this…How well do you leverage your 86,400 seconds?

Have you ever heard someone say they wish there was more time in a day? While I’ve already pointed out that you cannot increase the amount of time in a day, I’ve also said that time can in fact be leveraged if you know how. Some people use only a portion of a full day, while others leverage the entire day, and those who are most productive leverage multiples of a day…Multiples of a day you ask? In my world there are far more than 24 hours in a day…Through making good use of personal time, leveraging staff and technology, outsourcing across different time zones, associating with quality people and organizations, managing risk, and having a laser like focus on highest and best use principles, I estimate that I’m able to average nearly a full week’s work into a single 24 hour period while rarely working more than an average work week on a personal basis. Leveraging time is all about making good choices…are you making good choices?

The first step in making the most out of your time begins with the understanding that time itself is a key success metric. You can either leverage your time, or waste your time. Once you learn how to invest your time wisely, you can then get to a point where you can start to leverage your time into multiples. The first step in making this transition is to maximize personal time by avoiding the most common workplace time-wasters. According to most of the research I’ve read, the following items represent the top 10 corporate time-wasters:

1. A lack of focus and shifting priorities;
2. Technology (phone, email, IM, social media, etc.) interruptions;
3. Lack of planning;
4. Biting-off more than you can chew (initiative overload);
5. Drop-in visitors;
6. Ineffective delegation;
7. Lack of organizational skills;
8. Procrastination;
9. Inability to say “No”, and;
10. Unproductive meetings. 

Time can either be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Executives that understand how to use time to their advantage accomplish great things, and those who allow time to slip through their fingers don’t. The lesson to learn is to accomplish more through leverage while decreasing personal time commitments. Remember that time is a finite commodity, and once a moment in time has passed it is gone forever.

So the question that many seem to want to debate to the death is: Are leaders born or made? While there is a very simple answer to this question, most people are so entrenched in their beliefs that no amount of reason or logic will alter their opinions. But that’s never stopped me before…so for my part, I would actually like to put this useless debate to bed once and for all. So, what’s the answer? Both – some people are born with innate qualities that predispose them to being leaders, and other people while not naturally gifted with leadership ability can acquire it. Moreover, all leaders, born or made, can improve their ability with desire, experience and effort. 

If we’re to be honest with ourselves, as opposed to defending a particular position to suit our needs, we’ve all known born leaders…They are those affable individuals that posses charisma and presence combined with the ability to make good decisions that people have flocked to since an early age. They were your class presidents, homecoming and prom court members, team captains, club leaders, and the people who held virtually all the available leadership positions you can imagine early in life. They were those unflappable individuals that seemed to just have that “it” factor. They were the born leaders we all grew up with.

Before we move on, and as a caution to those who are natural leaders, natural ability will only take you so far. Leaders who rest on their laurels without making the effort to develop their skills will eventually be overtaken by those who view leadership as a professional skill to be developed and refined. As they old saying goes, “it’s not what you’ve been given, but what you do with it that matters.” Every person has to decide for themselves whether they’ll be an underachiever or a person who excels, and since you’ll be judged for your choice, my suggestion would be to choose wisely.  

Moving on, we’ve all also known individuals who while perhaps not naturally gifted leaders, either fell into, or accepted leadership responsibility, and worked diligently to develop themselves into highly effective leaders. Leadership acumen can most certainly be taught, and it can also be ingrained in those willing to put forth the effort. You see, the only things that keep someone from becoming a sound leader are a lack of character, effort and desire. If those three qualities are present, everything else can be developed. I’ve personally witnessed the shy and introverted develop presence, the greedy become giving, the arrogant develop an authentic sense of humility, the foolish become discerning and wise, people who struggled with decision making learn solid decisioning skills, individuals who lacked domain expertise acquire it, people who were ego centric transition into servant leaders and the list could go on…

Bottom line: It is not how a leader comes by their skill that is relevant. It only matters that they possess the requisite skills for the job, and that they are willing to apply those skills for the benefit of those they lead. Remember that there is no perfect leader, no single right way to lead, and no one-size-fits-all formula for leadership. Let’s stop wasting time debating whether leaders are born or made, and focus on how to help them be better leaders regardless of how they arrived.

“Leading Change” is clearly more difficult than arriving at the realization that change is needed…If you want to validate the prior statement reflect back on all of the “change agents” that have crossed your path over the years and ask yourself the following question: How many of them have truly succeeded. While we’ve heard a lot about change of late as it relates to our current political landscape, the power of real change is trivialized when it becomes little more than a political sound-bite. Change…it can either be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Change got President Obama elected, and it may well end-up being the root of his political demise. Nobody ever said change was easy, but I’m here to tell you that change is essential. In today’s blog post I’ll discuss why CEO’s and entrepreneurs (and not just politicians) need to become masters at catalyzing and leading change.

While there is little debate that the successful implementation of change can create an extreme competitive advantage, it is not well understood that the lack of doing so can send a company (or an individual’s career) into a death spiral. Companies that seek out and embrace change are healthy, growing, and dynamic organizations while companies that fear change are stagnant entities on their way to a slow and painful death. 

Agility, innovation, disruption, fluidity, decisiveness, commitment, and above all else a bias toward action will lead to the creation of change. It is the process of change which results in evolving, growing and thriving companies. Much has been written about the importance of change, but there is very little information in circulation about how to actually create it. While most executives and entrepreneurs have come to accept the concept of change management as a legitimate business practice, and change leadership as a legitimate executive priority in theory, I have found very few organizations that have effectively integrated change as a core discipline and focus area in reality.   

Leading change is certainly not without risk, but if implemented properly it can breathe life back into the most tired business. So, why is it that so many established companies struggle with the concept of change? Many times it is simply because companies have been doing the same things, in the same ways, and for the same reasons for so long that they struggle with the concept of change. Consider the modern workplace…In executive circles, leaders often talk about employees who are not on-board, resist change, and are reluctant to try new things.  And among the ranks of employees, conversations that take place in the hallways and break rooms often center around whether or not executives really know what they’re doing, and whether the newest change initiative is just a passing fad.  Actually, these reactions are reasonable, given the pace that change is occurring in most of organizations.

One of my contentions about why change is difficult to implement is that too many executives want perfection to proceed action, and the truth is that the pursuit of perfection is one of great adversaries of speed. In fact, at the risk of being controversial I’m going to take the position that perfection does not exist. I hate to break it to you, but those of you who regard yourselves as perfectionists simply exhibit perfectionistic tendencies in an unrealistic attempt to achieve what cannot be had. The pursuit of perfectionism does not result in an increase in quality, but it will result in time delays, cost overruns, missed deadlines and unkept commitments. I would suggest that rather than seeking what cannot in most cases ever be achieved, that it makes more sense to seek the highest standard of quality that makes economic sense relative to the constraints of an ever shifting marketplace.

One of the key considerations that must be understood when implementing change is the necessity of moving quickly. There are those that would argue that speed in synonymous with undisciplined decisioning, but I would caution you against confusing speed with reckless abandon I’m a big proponent of planning, assessment, analysis and strategy, but only if it is concluded in a timely fashion. “Analysis Paralysis” leads to missed opportunities and failed initiatives.

Earlier in my career I served as Director of Internet Strategy for what was at that time the world’s largest web-enablement firm. While serving in that position I coined the term e-velocity which we trademarked and used to describe the influence that technology was having on the pace at which business had to be conducted in order to remain competitive. It used to be acceptable to take 12 to 18 months to roll-out an initiative, but in today’s world you better be able to do it in 90 days or it will be obsolete before it gets to market.

When I first started in business it was usual and customary to produce 5 and 10 year business plans and today I work off of rolling 90 day tactical business plans. The latest advances in Business Process Management (BPM) have seen a reduction in the planning and budgeting cycle from 120 and 90 days to 45 days. But, is 45 days good enough? How many days constitute a responsive cycle time? Many believe the right number is between 5 and 10 days. Why is cycle time reduction important? Because shorter planning and budgeting processes facilitate greater flexibility and responsiveness.

In today’s competitive business environment you must quickly be able to assess risk and make timely decisions. You cannot be successful being guided by fear and hesitation. When in doubt, remember that “Speed Kills” and that “he who hesitates is lost.” Don’t fear change…embrace it. I think General George S. Patton said it best: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”