Blog Posts

Are You Thinking Strategically About Your Career?
I have a family member who some people suggest is rushing her career. It seems that when you talk to her and ask her about her job, you not only

It Takes a Village
If you are a Canadian, you are most likely sharing in the excitement recently of the first Canadian to win a grand slam tennis tournament. As a country, we are

Honesty and Integrity – Key Elements for All Managers and Leaders
“The first step toward greatness is to be honest.”

Are You Ready to Bail?
Many will tell you that the sign of a great leader is a positive attitude, regardless of what is thrown at them. I prefer to suggest that the sign of

Are You a Champion of Change?
Back in 2016, a friend of mine, Roy Osing, wrote an article entitled: “10 Things Smart Business People Do”. In it, he suggests that smart business people, or leaders, make

Do You Have Strong Plan Around Your Strategy?
We don’t often see a good plan in place for an organizational strategy. This is wrong. Unfortunately, the execution part of strategic planning is either mismanaged or missed completely. The

Leaders are Committed – Day in and Day Out
I have been trying to think about leadership without commitment. I can’t. They simply cannot exist without each other.

Are Your People Excited About the Future of Your Organization?
Strategic Planning is not easy. But all of the effort, time and resources you put in to its creation can go right in to the junk pile if you do

Do You Have Someone Who Actually Owns the Plan?
Over the summer, I have been reviewing some of the Clear Signals That Your Strategic Plan Is Going to Fail from a book I recently published with Mona Mitchell called

Does Your Strategic Plan Extend Out Too Far?
Most organizations are still planning too far out. In this day and age, realistically, how can we? With so many changes to our markets, politics and competitive playing field, we

Do You Know What Strategy Success Mean?
The plan looks good and you seem to have all the pieces in place, but when asked, no one seems to know what success will actually look or sound and

Does Your Strategic Plan have a Scorecard?
Happy Summer, 2019! In this first week of July, I continue my summer series on the seven Clear Signals That Your Strategic Plan Is Going to Fail and what you

Clear Signals That Your Strategic Plan Is Going to Fail
You have created a strong team, held a very productive, off-site strategic planning session, documented all the ideas and plans, published the official “Strategic Plan” and told everyone about it

An Historic Day for Canada
The Toronto Raptors have just won the 2019 NBA Championship and today (June 17, 2019) ‘we’ celebrated. The ‘we’ is Canada. They really are Canada’s team. People flooded into downtown

Project Managers Need to Step It Up
I struggled with the title of this week’s post. The title I chose could just as easily be: So, What Else Do You Have? Good Project Managers are a Dime

Leaders Build Relationships
“…astute leaders tune in to others’ feelings and predispositions, and acknowledge different opinions from a variety of sources. Now (when you may not necessarily need it) is the time to

The Key to Strategic Planning is Execution Planning
Originally posted June 10, 2015 “(Strategy) execution is the great unaddressed issue in the business world today. Its absence is the single biggest obstacle to success and the cause of

Great Leaders Build Great Leaders
…when measuring great leadership, the best of the best, to me, are the ones who are building great leaders in their path.

Thank You PMI Volunteers
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Don’t Burn That Bridge!
How do you blow up a bridge in under 10 seconds? You let your emotions get the best of you. It is so easy. You get really upset and steam

What is Your First Step After the Strategic Plan is Published?
Every great organization conducts a strategic planning session, of some sort, every few years, which produces a strategic plan that, in the majority of cases, goes no where. Forbes.com suggests

They Should Have Called it the PLI!
Every once in a while, I get the urge to connect with the Project Management Institute (PMI) Board of Directors to suggest a name change. Project Leadership Institute (PLI) In

Nice Sells
One of my Linkedin contacts, Michelle Krupa, posted an article from the web site Makeit.com, a portal from CNBC. The headline read: “Mark Cuban: ‘One of the most underrated skills

Culture Drives Strategy – Not the Other Way Around
“Culture is the often-overlooked foundation of an organization. It determines how the group retains talent, how it develops and releases new products and whether it meets targets. It affects how

You Need a Sound Strategic Plan to be Able to Execute Well
Five Key Elements to Building a Strong Strategic Plan Company X gets it now! They realize how important it is to focus on the execution of the plan as much

Disengagement – Strike at the Roots
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of disengagement to each one who is striking at the root.” Today I want to highlight the comment of one of my

Do You Have a Strategy Stress Test (SST)
I am a serial entrepreneur and a dreamer. I come up with new ideas all the time, which comes with good news and bad news. The good news is that

5 Things a Leader Should Do to Set a Good Example
Originally posted August, 2015 I was recently listening to a group of teenagers talk about their summer jobs and most of the talk was a rant about the leadership style

Working with a Disengaged Team
I have been watching a friend struggle recently as she tries to manage a team of people who were not engaged. Read… ‘they really didn’t care’. The result is demoralizing

Every Strategic Plan Needs a Solid Core
I have a friend who loves to innovate. He loves to create new companies, products or services but he isn’t very successful. Whenever you get him talking about the next