6 Practices of Innovative Companies

From the Herman Trend Newsletter: BCG also highlights six practices of the most innovative companies and explores how those practices have played out at innovation leaders across a range of industries: 1) Get the customer involved early. 2) Use data to drive tough decision-making. 3) Think strategically about tradeoffs. 4) Ensure senior leadership commitment. 5) Envision innovation as a holistic system. 6) Optimize intellectual property to create value. I think that is a spot-on list.  I was drawn to number 3 – think strategically about tradeoffs.  In dealing with smaller, entrepreneurial companies, I see the founders often fail in this area (fail to the point of liquidating).  It is critical… Read More

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Bad Habits Are Good?

I am struggling with this Salary.com article – 12 Bad Habits That Can Actually Help Your Career.  Here is one example: Procrastinating Today’s work culture expects us to multitask, run from one project to the next, and constantly be on the go. The urge to procrastinate indicates your brain is overtired, overstressed, and needs to slow down. Indulge and take a time out. You’ll come back refreshed, and better able to focus on the tasks at hand. What?  Indulge and take a time out?  As a manager, procrastination from my direct reports was…discouraged.  I never recall telling them to indulge and take a time out.  To me it seems like… Read More

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Leadership Jargon

Oh does this Sales & Marketing Management article hit me where I live.  The gist of the article is the corporate speak many leaders use in hopes of sounding…smarter?  I really don’t know why they do it.  I have encountered this approach when working with leaders and their teams.  Assessing teams provides insight into how the team interacts and how the leader interacts with the team.  There are many leaders out there who seem preoccupied with the latest buzzwords and corporate speak. A waste of time in my opinion.  Apparently the author shares this view: “My leadership philosophy is to optimally leverage the passions of my people such that at… Read More

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Of Authenticity

I have encountered this issue of authenticity recently in a handful of situations and it has captured my attention.  Here’s why – Gen Y is all about authenticity.  As a Gen Xer, I would argue that it is high on our list also.  Yet, some Baby Boomers have a different approach to authenticity and it stems from one key approach – they believe they have to have the answer to every question. Now I’m not talking about aerospace-grade questions, but questions regarding their field of expertise.  Recently I witnessed 3 different situations where different Baby Boomer-aged experts encountered a difficult question.  The question was clearly beyond what they knew yet… Read More

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Agile Leadership

Here is a Forbes article that hits on a crucial topic for the next generation of leaders – agility (h/t Rick Brimacomb).  Short article but let’s set the table: For companies to continue succeeding, next generation leaders must be able to handle any curve ball thrown their way. Leading through this new business environment requires the capability to sense and respond to changes in the business environment with actions that are focused, fast and flexible. The best way to put it: next generation leaders have to be agile. Exactly.  The business market moves in rapid, titanic shifts requiring leaders to be nimble and agile to react.  The author’s description: Agile… Read More

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The President’s Club

This is a funny story from Yahoo: The company that makes Hot Tamales candy offered its sales team an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii if it met its annual goals, and a trip to the nation’s arctic tundra if it didn’t. The Just Born team did not meet its target and, on Tuesday, about two dozen salespeople gathered inside the 19-story Radisson hotel — the tallest building in frozen Fargo. Outside, the temperature was 7 degrees. The ground had 2 feet of snow. It gets better: They are trying to make the best of it, with a little humor. They planned tours of two North Dakota wineries and a winter extravaganza… Read More

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Introverted Leaders

Great article here from the Harvard Business Review titled The Hidden Advantages of Quiet Bosses.  Oh, where to begin on this one?  I have seen this thought process play out firsthand with many customers and even in my own career.  In the sales world, extroverts are generally held in higher regard than introverts – that has been my experience. This same value structure typically plays out in promoting salespeople into sale management roles.  The extroverts often get the position.  However, here is a differing position put forward in the article: To be sure, extroverted leaders have important strengths. However, they also tend to command the center of attention and take… Read More

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Impulse Drive

No, I’m not talking about Star Trek but rather a common drive amongst leaders that can get them in trouble.  I’ve seen this drive recently in a couple of different business-owning customers.  My definition of it is a fast-acting, emotionally-driven decision. I think there is some value to it especially in the early, entrepreneurial stages of a company.  Start-ups certainly need to be nimble to compete against larger, established competitors with deeper pockets.  However, the impulse drive can outlive its value if the owner/founder overuses it as his/her company grows larger. One example is an owner who developed an idea for a new service offering and went full out to… Read More

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Battle Lines

I’ve been busy over the past week or two handling a myriad of business topics and tasks which has decreased my blogging time dramatically.  One item has come up during this time at one of our customers – a battle of wills amongst managers.  This is no small battle, it has turned into an ongoing war for which I am now in the midst of the battlefield. Without going into specifics, I can tell you where we start in these situations – motivations.  The first place to look when there is interpersonal conflict within an office team is the motivation pattern for each individual.  In the instance with our customer,… Read More

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Facebook Faux Pas

This story will do down in the annals of management malfeasance.  A good friend of mine works for a small company that had an atrocious employee.  This employee couldn’t show up on time (if at all), didn’t seem to know what she was doing and created great dissent within the team.  Unfortunately, the owner made the emotional hire and didn’t want to admit his error, at least not in a timely manner. So this employee continued her employment with my friend’s company for almost 6 mos. and the stories that surrounded her were almost unbelievable.  She missed work all together and offered these excuses: overslept reaction to medication robbed while… Read More

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