ideas are like mischievous pixies — don’t let them lead you astray — Pixies have a penchant for making mischief. In fact, to be pixie-led is to be led astray. When things go wrong, it’s easier to blame the pixies. We have pixies in our business — we call them ideas. They’re fun, shiny, and exciting. …

your Core strategy has 5 pieces — and you need all 5 — Many leaders present an inspiring vision or a carefully crafted statement to their team. They put effort into the production with well-made slides and sometimes a video to circulate for an additional boost. Then that’s it. One statement alone isn’t useful because it doesn’t connect your why to your what…

the boss is dead. long live the conductor. — For a long time, when we talked about leadership, we were talking about the boss — the person sitting in the high-back chair in the crisp corner office with the important title. And the title was generally enough to keep them there. Or, as the mob would put it: “The…

or why your plan has different elements — I got an email from a leader the other day. She had asked me about developing a plan, and I happily shared some resources. After reading them, she asked, “Why does the distinction between objectives, key results, and tasks matter? Aren’t these all under the heading of “stuff that will…

remember, you’re telling a story — We work hard to measure our impact, at least in part so we can share it. And like many things in life and business, there are good ways to share your impact…and not so good ways. Here are 5 don’ts to avoid when you’re developing an impact report: #1 Don’t share your metrics without context. Numbers lack…

how guidelines produce better work than assembly lines — Did you know that Henry Ford didn’t invent the assembly line? He actually improved upon an existing assembly line being used by another manufacturer. The concept of treating workers like cogs in a machine has been around longer than many of us actively recognize — going back as far as…

there are three steps when responding to team members — There’s nothing quite like getting juiced about a new idea. It makes perfect sense in our mind, and we know it’s going to light up our plate with a full dash of awesome sauce. We might even be a little proud of ourselves. Then someone comes along and says no. …

three tips for saying no better — Growing a business means fielding a lot of different ideas. New ideas, old ideas, shiny ideas. Ideas come in the form of new offerings, solutions to problems within our business, and different tactics to improve our ability to achieve our goals. But if we don’t know how to say no…

3 things your meeting plan needs to have — Ever get on a meeting and realize in the first five minutes that it isn’t about what you thought it was about? Or that the meeting doesn’t seem to have a point at all? I’m going to hazard a guess that you’re nodding your head because most of us have…