Minute Mindset

Do you have any idea how many businesses I go into where the environment is out of control? I mean you walk in and you can feel the confusion. You stand and watch and see the emotional interchanges that are going on.

Most don’t seem to understand the need to create an environment that is calm. I know, I know — you are thinking this guy doesn’t live in the real world. There is no such thing as calmness around here. All I do is move from one crisis to another.

That is not how things have to be! That is how leadership has designed the environment. You see, any business is simply an environment that is decision driven or crisis driven. The difference is the style of leadership.

Show me an environment that is crisis driven and I will show you a place where people are constantly involved in emotional collisions. Someone is blaming someone else for what is happening. No one is really looking for resolution; their only concern is protecting their territory.

Someday...

One of the most valuable lessons I learned while I was working as a counselor was most people want honesty as long as it is not honest. As much as people say they want you to be truthful with them, most cannot handle the truth.

This is even true in the business environment. When I go inside a company to work, I search for three things:

• Is there clear communication among all the people?
• Are people honest about what is happening?
• Is there trust among all levels of people?

If you look at these, they go together — don’t they? You will never have clear communication without people trusting each other. If there is no trust, there sure won’t be honesty. Without the honesty, things can’t improve. When you can’t honestly deal with issues, they don’t go away. They just hang around and fester until they become an emotional issue so large they explode as a wild fire.

So, here is a question for you: Do you want your people to always be honest with you?...

According to research, organizational change happens more often than expected. In fact, recent data states that 2 out of 3 organizations must change a minimum of four times every five years. But while organizational changes are common, they are not always easy.

Poorly implemented adjustments when introduced to a shaky team did will not keep them relevant or future-proof. On the flip side, when done well, organizational changes can usher in a more sustainable, more proactive, and more well-rounded organization. The best way to achieve this is to enact an Agile leadership.

What’s Agile leadership?

This leadership style doesn’t just refer to leaders who are able to pivot and adapt quickly. In ZDNet’s article on management style, Agile leadership is described as a concept designed on Agile software development. This approach allows teams to respond in a timely and effective manner, with as few siloes and as little executive intervention as needed. As such, Agile...

Do you ever have days when you feel you just don’t get anything done? Oh, you start the day with good intentions; you have an agenda of things you want to achieve, BUT the minute you walk through the company the day you planned turns upside down.

Some have a problem and they feel compelled to share it with you. It sounds like:

              Hey, boss I need to talk to you…

              I got to tell you what happened…

              Hey, I got this problem…

The interruptions start and your agenda is out the window. Does it ever frustrate you that you don’t get to do the things you feel you should be doing? Is it ever exhausting to end your day and still have a million things to get done?

So what do many people do? They get up and go in early so they can get...

Never has Leadership been as important as it is today. This new environment is forcing companies to reexamine who they are, what they are about, how they must adapt, adjust and realign their business to this new business landscape they are facing.

For many their business terrain is not stable. What “was” is now having to be looked at with a different set of filters. How things were done are now having to be viewed through the eyes of yesterday. What is “now” is not what was; what worked yesterday must now be reexamined as to whether this new business landscape will support the pathway of yesterday.

This is creating a big challenge for many who have the responsibility of leadership. This new abnormal has turned their comfortable routine upside down. The economy was moving, business was happening, and it didn’t take a lot of energy to be successful. THEN, out of nowhere came a little micro-organism, and its appearance turned the world of business on its...