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The Stagecoach Metaphor: Are your managers like coach horses pulling you forward or draft oxen requiring constant pushing?

Winners know when to quit. Define your Kill Criteria in advance so you are not tempted to second guess yourself later.

It is your job as CEO to make strategic decisions, but strive to get directional alignment from your senior leaders before the strategy session.

Deadlines are not suggestions. A due date is a commitment. By all means get it done sooner, but due dates are ‘commits’, not ‘hopes’.

A good result doesn’t mean a good decision. A lucky win isn’t a good process. Focus on repeatable, scalable processes for enduring success.

Avoid the charade of management theater. Renegotiate metrics every quarter, confront below-standard performance, and assign remedial action.

It should take no longer than 15 minutes to write the report, and take no longer than 5 minutes to read everyone’s reports.

As a manager, it’s better to be respected than to be liked. Achieving results and winning the game leads to a happier team over the long term

If you constantly “dip down” to do the functional work of your people, you are operating at the wrong level as a manager

I needed to learn how to be a better listener. The secret I found lies in one word. “Curiosity.”  

In round numbers, only 10% of employees leave for more money. 90% leave for 7 other reasons.

Which meetings would you no longer attend, if you could access robust meeting notes that kept you informed about what went on?

Navy Seals have a saying, “Two is one. One is none.” It means having a backup option for anything considered mission-critical.

After 1 month, people can only recall about 20% of what they originally learned.

Focus on less to achieve more. What is “the one thing”, the most important task that can be completed this week to achieve the goal?

Weekly reporting is a practice I wholeheartedly recommend, and my highest-performing clients swear by it.

Pop psychology might be fun but voodoo hiring methodology has no place in a serious recruitment process if you want to hire A-Players.

How to conduct a Premortem and scope your projects more accurately.

Barnacles create a “drag” on your life, slowing you down from achieving your goals.

As we move into a new year, I find it useful to conduct a personal annual review exercise with my executive coaching clients. In the spirit of “eating my own dog food” I have decided to share my own review this year.

Business lessons from competitive bodybuilding: Setting a BHAG, Core vs Non-Core Activities, Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

2 lessons from the book, How Big Things Get Done

For every core value, I recommend you create 2 stories. A “hero legend” and a “villain legend”. 

There’s an old saying, “The best medicine usually tastes terrible”. The best feedback usually tastes terrible also. 

Identify the monkey (the hard problem) when scoping a project and solve that problem first. Don’t spin your wheels on the easy stuff. Deal with the monkey first.

Job hoppers switch jobs every 18 months. They tend to be B-Players. Be very cautious.

Create a visual representation of your bullseye target customer and give them a seat at the decision-making table

Business lessons from 2 weeks of driving around with a poor wheel alignment

I use the analogy of the “Nantucket Sleighride” to teach clients about the dangers of not focusing on their target customer

10X Management Tasks are where you can potentially get 10 times the return on your investment of time and energy.

If you held a Monthly Metrics Review to discuss the visualized trends of the top 3 metrics from each function you’d be far ahead of most leadership teams in terms of having a firm handle on your key business drivers.

Beware of survivorship bias, and don’t believe the hype! To increase your odds, seek principles that have stood the test of time, but always remember, there are no guaranteed formulas for success.  

A-Players are like drivers. They drive company growth. B-Players are like passengers who come along for the ride, adding weight that slows you down

If you cannot manage yourself to be effective with the way you invest your time, you cannot expect to do a good job of managing others. Here’s a 4 quadrant framework I use to help managers make better time management choices.

A “user manual” is a document that describes your personal preferences at work, how you like to operate, and how you like to communicate.

To create a no excuses culture, create “Task Rules” and make it safe for people to challenge mediocrity. That’s what high-performing teams do. 

Some clients scramble to implement their Strategic Projects (aka Big Rocks) each quarter. Here is the framework I use to accelerate strategy execution.

Your #1 task as a manager is to coach and support your team. The 1 on 1 meeting is the most important use of your time, it’s where you “do the work” of being a manager.

Use the GROW framework to coach your team members to solve problems and make well-reasoned decisions without your input

Suggestions for how to deliver bad news in a way that keeps your team engaged and achieves a successful long-term outcome

Strategic planning preparation requires everyone to have an understanding of the key issues and be primed to debate the options and make robust decisions

An overview of my “Personal Effectiveness Time Tracker” tool and process to help you enhance leadership effectiveness.

As we move into a new year, I find it useful to conduct a personal annual review exercise with my executive coaching clients. In the spirit of “eating my own dog food” I have decided to share my own review this year.

People who were a good fit when you were a small, early-stage company may not be the right fit when your company grows and scales.

I encourage clients to track activity metrics for sales managers to ensure they spend enough time coaching sales rep interactions with customers

You must “prune the rosebush” to remove the products, services, activities, and people that aren’t “core” to your long-term success.

A common challenge faced by clients as their company scales is the role transition from “managing a team” to becoming a “manager of managers”.

Most clients use Net Promoter Score (NPS) to track customer loyalty. I recommend they add the Customer Effort Score (CES) to get a true picture of customer satisfaction.

I encourage my clients to apply the “18 Month Rule” when they are looking to hire a senior manager for one of their business functions.

4Q Conversations are the 4 pieces of information you need to gather from each customer conversation to inform your company strategy.

A client CEO was struggling to get firm commitments from his team to get tasks done on time. Here were my 2 recommendations.

How my client managers learn to spend a greater percentage of their time performing high-leverage, high-value tasks.

Build in 10% of your time each week as slack/buffer time or you run the risk of being “short-term efficient, long-term ineffective”

When I managed a consulting team in the USA, I would periodically conduct walking 1 on 1 meetings with my staff. I found this format particularly helpful when coaching poor performance.

Just as my goal as a consultant is to maximize the value of each available consulting hour, your goal as a leader is to maximize the value of each available leadership hour. What is your “Leadership Hurdle Rate”?

The Forgetting Curve (also known as the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve) represents the decline in memory retention we experience over time if no attempt is made to retain the information. Here’s how to beat it.

A one-time “clearing conversation” with an employee often creates a temporary spike in performance, the so-called “3-week surge”. But invariably, without further coaching, the person reverts back to their default mode of operating.

“Hierarchy mode” (the leader calls the shots) or “Flat mode” (the leader shares power)? Effective leaders know when to toggle between these 2 leadership gears.

When I see someone hogging the microphone, I intervene using a technique I call my “60-second rule”

The book “Turn the ship around” by David Marquet has much to recommend about it. However, I have some caveats when applying this military solution directly into a business environment

As we move into a new year, I find it useful to conduct a personal annual review exercise with my executive coaching clients. I have seen it be a life-changing exercise on more than one occasion, with people making bold decisions that took them in new directions.

I use the lobster analogy when I think of personal growth and organizational growth. Eventually, we bump into the limits of our current shells If we want to progress to the next level, we must break free from the old shell that binds us, and grow into a new, bigger shell.

Overview of the Strategy Execution content I delivered in my lecture for University of Canterbury MBA program

I presented 3 workshops for an inspiring group of New Zealand business founders. Here is my “After Action Review” of my workshop presentation lessons

Allan Mulally, the former CEO of Ford said people need 3 things from their Leaders: 1. Who are you? 2. Where are we going? 3. Do you see me?

Good teams take time, 6 to 8 people is optimal, they need to work closely together, and the leader needs to be focused

Playbook for how to Survive a Downturn – excerpts from an article by Pete Flint

Summary of a chapter from the book “Working Backwards”, about how Amazon uses metrics – key performance indicators (KPIs)

A Microsoft study shows the average workday has expanded by 1 hour, and 30% of people resume work after dinner

How to run an asynchronous daily huddle with geographically dispersed teams to coordinate work and coach people more effectively

Managers get invited to a lot of meetings, but not every meeting is important. Use these rules to figure out which meetings to attend

Why do strategy anyway? The case for and against strategic planning.

My number 1 leadership productivity lesson: Carve out and fiercely protect 2 hours of uninterrupted time every day to do “The One Thing”

MAYA is an acronym for “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable”. To sell something surprising, make it familiar. To sell something familiar, make it surprising.

Use the “Trust Equation” to determine, diagnose, and repair trust in your organization

American “Hustle Culture” and its impact on work hours

Unpacking 5 myths about management

How applicable is Military Strategy to Business Strategy?

Communicate clearly, avoid misunderstandings, and save time. Making time to craft a better email saves time (for everyone) over the long run.

6 Psychologically damaging things parents (and managers) say, and what to say instead

Insights from the book Alchemy by Rory Sutherland. Hat tips to big thinkers Tom Morgan and Jim OShaughnessy.

Cedric Chin and Ray Dalio on believability. Why many business books and Ted Talks are full of B.S.

If you’re not saying HELL YEAH about an opportunity, say NO

A proven process to run your annual strategic planning meeting and create a winning strategy that will set you up for future success in your industry

Adopt these 7 “work smart” practices which have been shown in the research to be the key drivers of performance

McChrystal is a controversial character, but there were great takeaways in this book. Here is my summary of the key business lessons from Team of Teams

In this article, I focus on a selection of cognitive biases and provide suggestions for how to inoculate ourselves from them

The meeting facilitator’s role is to optimize meeting productivity and support the decision-making process

My summary of the book Extreme Ownership and the key business lessons from Navy SEALs

The Face to Face Tandem Interview is a 3 hour interview. 1 person asks the questions and 1 person observes the candidate’s body language and takes notes

Reference check interviews must be conducted before any hiring decisions are made. Implement a hiring policy: “No reference checks = No job offer.” 

My summarized version of the Topgrading methodology that will significantly increase your chances of hiring A-Players for every role

Measure results, not hours. It’s not about face-time at the office (or virtual equivalent), it’s about delivering visible results.

The 1953 Yale goal setting study is a myth. Does writing down goals actually work? Yes, but with provisos.

Carve out 2 hours of uninterrupted time to get “The One Thing” done every day. Then set aside “open door” times for team members to speak with you.

The 70-20-10 ratio has several applications: Time allocation in meetings; Resource allocation for driving innovation, Job training

The side-effects of poor metric choices. Beware of letting measures replace your good judgment of “What is the right thing to do here?”

A client asked, “What is the difference between a Strategic Project and a regular Project?” Here are my definitions:

Core Values. The All Blacks call this “Inventing your own language”. You create a vocabulary that binds your culture together.