Blog #229 I have been pondering a recent session I conducted with a leadership team of an organization that had just been purchased by a larger, synergistic competitor. In other words, it was young, big, growing company that was backed by a lot of money, yet they had not been faced with many large business issues. The cultures matched and it appeared to be a great fit. Before we met,
Blog #228 I believe that conflict avoidance is the number one killer of productivity and profitability in small and mid-sized businesses. In fact, I think one of the main reasons that people keep me around for facilitation is because I am willing to “Go there”. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have been working with a leadership team when, finally, the topic of John/Jane comes up.
Blog #227 I love saying things like, “Extraordinary often lives in the unreasonable, so be unreasonable,” “Good enough sucks,” or, to use my favorite Henry Ford quote, “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right.” I push the teams I work with to be unreasonable, to be great, and to believe they can. Sometimes, this comes back to haunt me. What I mean is that I also
Blog #226 Recently, Reka and I completed our annual strategic planning trip that we do as a couple. We have done this for 20 years in one form or another, yet we have really embraced it over the last three years. I can confidently say there is not anything else that we do together that is as impactful on our relationship and as powerful. In fact, we began facilitating couples
Blog #225 This post is the fifth part of this series, which shares my insights and take-aways from the recent Inspiring Entrepreneurial Strategy course I completed at Harvard Business School. In this case, the events outlined here happened after my experience at Harvard; however, the thoughts and ideas expressed in this blog occurred to me during my time there. It was then that I realized I had not done any
Blog #224 In this blog, the fourth of the series, I will continue sharing my take-aways, observations, and reflections from the Inspiring Entrepreneurial Strategy course I recently took at Harvard Business School. Professor Bill Kerr presented a case study that involved the company CrossFit. The owner of CrossFit was going through a divorce and his spouse was selling her stake in the business for over $20 million. She legally had
Blog #223 This blog is the third installment of my insights and take-aways from a course called Inspiring Entrepreneurial Strategy I recently completed at Harvard Business School. One case study followed the process that Jim Sharp, an upper-level corporate guy, endured to buy a business, onboard himself, turn it around, and eventually sell it. Since I am a former business broker, I loved this case, as it was fun to
Blog #222 This blog is the second installment of my insights and take-aways from a course called Inspiring Entrepreneurial Strategy I recently completed at Harvard Business School. Professor Lynda Applegate presented a case study in which she described some early personal challenges that had influenced her in becoming a professor. After being tenured, life threw her a wonderful curveball – she had a son. Lynda continued by expressing how she
Blog #221 Recently, I took an Inspiring Entrepreneurial Strategy course at Harvard Business School. Since then, I have had time to reflect on what I learned during my time in Boston; in the next several blogs, I will share the insights and tips I gathered from this experience. This intense course was facilitated by the senior MBA faculty of Harvard Business School. In total, there were 97 participants of a
Blog #220 Just before sitting down to write this blog, I had just finished a strategy session with a new client in the UK. I was in Nebraska and they were in England. Even though I am not really a fan of technology at times, the virtual meeting worked, was impactful, and well, was fun. As much as I dislike technology, there are times and situations that require it to
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