Non-profits often have the challenge we explored last week: constraints. Constraints include lower budgets, impact of economic downturns on funding and volunteer efforts, and cycles driven by major programs. For these reasons, they come up with creative ways to maintain success and engagement. Even if you don’t lead in a non-profit, many of their ideas … Read more
I heard a great question from Des Moines business leader Nora Everett of Principal: “How would you put yourself out of business?” Whether you apply it to your entire business, or your team, you can come up with some great improvement ideas from exploring this question. I applied it to my own business and came up with … Read more
Change is inevitable, and so there are many resources to help organizations deal with change. The John Kotter works (Our Iceberg is Melting) are very popular, and for good reason. You’ve heard of Who Moved my Cheese? as well, certainly. Change management resources like these can help leaders navigate and push change successfully, but something … Read more
Recently, when covering the Four Levels of Maturity, we were on a quest to find an essential question that a person would ask at each level. Recall, the first two levels are somtimes referred to as acting “‘below the line”, whereas levels three and four are sometimes referred to as acting “above the line”, which … Read more
Leaders often know what the needs are in a situation, and dictate them with authority. While the leader is often correct about the direction, engagement can suffer without more buy-in; asking questions that help others discover the same needs can help. Even when you know what is needed, consider expanding your own understanding, helping others buy-in … Read more