If I had to define them in one sentence, I’d say: If your business looked in the mirror, KPIs are what would be staring back at it. But, since I have more than one sentence, I’ll elaborate. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. A KPI is a piece of tracked and trended information that helps explain how your business (or …
Leadership vs management… what’s the difference? If you Google it you’ll find a host of articles painting “management” as the shadowy underbelly of leadership done poorly and putting “leadership” on a worship-worthy pedestal. Is “leadership” the Dr. Jekyll to “management’s” Mr. Hyde? Or are these comparisons unfair? If you buy into leadership vs management as a light vs dark paradigm, …
One of our junior technicians was looking at me nervously. He had probably been expecting one of the managers to review his proposal to tweak our workflow. Instead, somehow I, the VP, Operations, had gotten a hold of it. I finished my read through and looked up at him, grinning. “This is some fucking great work,” I announced. His face …
Have you ever wished you could eliminate miscommunication in your business? I have. When miscommunication rears its head, failure tends to follow. This can include screw-ups like building the wrong thing for a client, setting incorrect expectations which lead to a missed deadline, or one of your team members wasting time doing work that isn’t want you were asking for …
As Super Bowl LII approaches, most people agree there is something special about the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles team. Some describe it as a sense of destiny, others have pointed out the team’s chemistry. But what is truly different and special about the team this year? As a lifelong fan, I thought it through and came up with a surprisingly extensive …
One of the companies where I worked as an executive was a private equity-owned turnaround. When the PE company was initially evaluating buying the business, one of the things that came to light in due diligence was that the company paid salaries significantly below market rates. In a financial review of the company’s income statement, this was viewed as an …
Most leaders crave a team dedicated to excelling in their roles and who have the grit to push through fear of failure when it holds them back. Most team members dream of a boss who is excited to support them by making it safe to take risks and who has the experience to help them grow. In many cases, though, …
I had dinner with a former employee recently and he was trying to figure out if it was time for him to move on to a new company. His issue wasn’t so much his compensation, although he would have liked more, and it wasn’t so much his role, as he enjoyed most of what he did. Instead, what was bothering …
