The tyranny of the urgent lies in its distortion of priorities. So we've got to choose — from all our long-range options, alternatives, and possibilities — to establish short-term goals and priorities.
Read article »I am glad to see that last month’s newsletter (The Leader Letter) theme of spring clean up, To-Stop lists, busyness, and The Acceleration Trap touched a nerve with many readers. It’s a complex, multi-layered, and very serious problem at personal, team, and organizational levels. Following are some thoughtful reflections and observations on the topic: “I […]
Read post »There’s an epidemic of frantic busyness, multi-tasking, project overload, way too many goals, and tyranny of the urgent. An old folk saying reminds us “the hurrier I go the behinder I get.” A theme running through many recent blog postings has been the critical need to be more focused, disciplined, and strategic with our personal, […]
Read post »As I was preparing to facilitate a senior management team retreat and planning session I came across an excellent Harvard Business Review article on the huge problem of frantic busyness and priority overload. This was especially timely since the executive team was debating how they’ll deal with a long list of urgent projects, goals, and […]
Read post »I’ve just completed a two-day retreat with a fast-growing leadership team. They scored themselves at the lowest levels we’ve seen on our Team Dynamics Survey. Rarely do we see a leadership team as dysfunctional as this one. Their unique products and growing revenues were papering over many huge cracks and barely holding them together. […]
Read post »I was asked to facilitate an annual strategic planning retreat with a senior leadership team. The CEO sent me their draft agenda for the session. Hmm…oh, oh…. Looking at the typical approach they’ve used before, four common strategic planning problems immediately popped out: The agenda was loaded with about 17 project/operational presentations/reviews and updates. Yikes! […]
Read post »I recently had a call with a CEO about facilitating a strategic planning retreat this fall with 15 of their top leaders. That will be a refreshing change — we’re all fully vaccinated and ready to get together in person again. The CEO sent me their draft agenda for the session. Looking at the fairly […]
Read post »I once sat through a frantic, high-energy presentation by an author on knowledge management. He deluged us with a flood of statistics showing how the world’s knowledge was growing at mind-blowing rates. The gist of his presentation was that we need to re-train our brains to absorb more information at faster rates so we could […]
Read post »Many organizations are struggling with low or mediocre levels of employee engagement, customer service, quality, safety, productivity, and innovation. This reflects uninspiring cultures of mediocrity created by harried leaders madly scrambling to keep up. An organization’s culture ripples out from the senior leadership team leading it. In “Is Your Leadership Team Slipping into These Traps?” […]
Read post »When our kids were young I was often reminded of the old adage “children act like their parents — despite all attempts to teach them good manners.” When one of our kids did something I wasn’t especially pleased with, I found myself asking “where did you learn that?” When I stood back and I reflect on […]
Read post »What percent of time do you or your leaders spend among these three areas: Solving technical problems or applying your technical expertise? Using data and analytical skills, sending/receiving e-mails, planning, directing, and decision making? Talking individually or collectively with people inside and outside your organization, coaching, developing, and inspiring action? Have you lost your balance? […]
Read post »Learn vital executive team and culture development strategies Drawing from decades of work with hundreds of executive teams, Jim Clemmer delivers an energizing and information-packed webinar on the critical and intertwined need for leadership/culture development and executive team building. This fast-paced 60-minute session will focus on proven frameworks and best practices that empower executive teams […]
Watch webinar »Pathways to Performance is a book about change and choices. High performance is driven by having a clear vision of where you are going, knowing your customers, your team, and yourself, then choosing a path that will better serve your customers and fully develop the tremendous potential in your team and yourself. Many thanks to […]
View page »Learn vital executive team and culture development strategies Drawing from decades of work with hundreds of executive teams, Jim Clemmer will deliver an energizing and information-packed webinar on the critical and intertwined need for leadership/culture development and executive team building. This fast-paced 60-minute session will focus on proven frameworks and best practices that empower executive […]
Read post »In a recent Leadership Team Retreat we used a survey based on 7 Deadly Time Traps for Leaders. The biggest trap this team fell into was Acceleration and Overload. This was closely followed by Reactive and Busyness and Coaching Skills. We agreed these three areas were intertwined. These were creating a growing sense of frantic […]
Read post »Recently I was asked to speak at a CEO forum on strategic use of the CEO’s time. This was a great opportunity to review the common themes emerging from our keynotes and workshops and leadership team retreats. These time traps apply to anyone in a leadership role, but especially to senior executives. How many of […]
Read post »Time is the great equalizer. We all get exactly the same amount of it every day. What a leader does with his or her daily time allotment distinguishes good, bad, and extraordinary leaders. Many less effective leaders are sucked into the busyness trap trying to keep up with their daily deluge of e-mails and stream […]
Read post »Good managers have always fostered teamwork. But highly effective leaders are now showing the performance power of building a team-based organization. Where teams have been effectively organized and led, the list of team outcomes have led to dramatic improvements in productivity, customer service, quality, process management, innovation, cost effectiveness, job satisfaction, morale, and financial performance. […]
View page »People who get little done often work a great deal harder. In the midst of tumultuous change, many managers are confusing “busywork” activity with results. They seem to live by the French Cavalry’s motto, “When in doubt, gallop” — so everything becomes urgent. They are constantly setting action plans and making lists of projects, goals, […]
View page »Some change and improvement efforts have been hugely successful, others have been somewhat successful, and some ended up in the swamp. In reviewing the results, it is clear that a core number of execution problems or failure factors are common to all of the team, organization, and individual improvement efforts.
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