Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success — along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like… I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it […]
It’s not market share, innovation, or strategy. It’s not earning per share, EBITDA, or another round of funding. It’s also not left-wing, right-wing, or centrist policies. Though it sounds like Sunday school treacle, we wise leaders know the way to sustained happiness, growth, and freedom. It is to help others achieve sustained happiness, growth, and […]
It can look like complaint, frustration, withdrawal, fear, defensiveness, anger, worry, guilt, pushing, or avoiding. No matter. If anything has led you to believe that you are separate, above, below, isolated, or disconnected from any and all others, please–please–look again. The deep-down insight here is that, despite appearances, all of us are intimately connected. We […]
Two simple thoughts cause most of the pain and dysfunction we see around us. They are, “We are separate,” and, “There is not enough.” Consider what would happen if people started believing the opposite: “We are one,” and, “There is more than enough.” How would our own lives change? How would all the nasty, divisive, […]
Here are five business plan mistakes. If we can avoid these, we will get the promised benefits of business plans including clarity, alignment, performance, and confidence. Mistake #1: The plan is the thing. Most of the power of a business plan is not the plan itself. The real value is in the work–the research, conversations, dreaming, and thinking–that […]
This is the thing about growth: our businesses cannot reach beyond our ability to run them. Any lack of business growth is a good sign that we need to grow. Luckily, we can measure and improve our leadership capacity. We need only a bit of self-trust to get going. Learn and go grow, good leader. In […]