Leaders are always improving, innovating, inspiring and changing. I just ran some financials – five years ago, what was once 89% of my gross income, is now 37%. My challenge is that my business structure is not matching my new offerings. What about your business?
In my executive coaching we are constantly dealing with 5 core business issues. They do blend and the 5th one is the ultimate goal. Here they are:
1. Leadership
2. Culture
3. Structure
4. Building processes and policies that support
5. Organizational Intelligence
Organizational Architecture – Here is a couple of questions to ponder:
- When was the last time you took a health assessment of the above core issues to better serve your internal or external customers?
- What are you currently doing to work on each of the five core areas to help your current leadership team?
- Which one of the 5 would be most important for your leadership team to focus on right now?
If we can be of help please reply – our team of coaches are ready to engage with you!
Here is a note from Clint Hurdle – Manager of the Pittsburg Pirates – that was sent me this week:
In 1968, when Kent M. Keith was a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard, he wrote the Paradoxical Commandments as part of a booklet for student leaders. He describes the Commandments as guidelines for finding personal meaning in the face of adversity:
1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
The essence of these Commandments is that each of us must choose to do what we think we should do, even when we think we have good reasons not to. They remind us that we are capable of rising above common practices that demean our nature and our culture.
Clint’s message in this quote is that character still matters… I know that Dale Carnegie would have agreed.
This post is brought to you by the good folks at Dale Carnegie Training of Western and Central PA, providers of professional development and management development courses and information in Pennsylvania. We would love to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter @dalecarnegiepa.