Monday Morning Mojo

Happy New Year! 2012 promises to be a wonderful year with its own unique frontiers. The word frontier was adopted into English from the French where it means borderland, the portion of a country where it meets the neighboring land. It usually refers to a region that is just beyond the area that is settled. […]

Visionary leadership is transformative. It involves greatness, penetrating the ordinary to arrive at a new land, reaching through time to bring out the best the world has to offer. Such a leader anticipates events, influences the future, and enables people to flourish. This means perceiving challenges and growth opportunities before they happen while positioning to

The solstice is upon us. Here in North America it is the Winter Solstice, when the axial tilt of the Earth is farthest away from our Sun.  In the southern hemisphere it is precisely the opposite: the axial tilt is closest to our star. Either way it is a turning point in the year. For

In physics traction is thought of as the maximum frictional force that can be applied between two surfaces without slipping. In business, it is about not losing your grip on your customers as you steer, drive, brake, and innovate. Traction is a precursor to value generation. You have to bring your customer along for the

What puts you at your best? And how much of it have you been getting? Well… it’s time to change that! If you are not getting enough of what you need then now is the time to seriously revisit how you operate at your best. And if you have been getting enough, how about ratcheting

A breakthrough is a sudden and dramatic improvement that propels one to a new level of performance. The word starts with break, which indicates a separation, marked progress that cannot be reversed. A breakthrough is not a temporary shift or a change in perception. It is an achievement of undeniable and sustained improvement. Many hope

Tt’s tempting to think excellence in delivery trumps all, but it doesn’t really. Those who know how to reach their market effectively will always score better than those who fail that hurdle. Take a trip to Nashville. On any day of the week you can find 10 musicians in clubs that easily out-perform 90% of

When we think of innovation, most of us think of something like a skunk works, an experimental laboratory where new ideas are cooked up to take to market. We have been told by many innovation gurus that we can all be innovators if we become curious, adopt a playful attitude, give ourselves permission to fail,

Star Trek was an experiment when it first appeared on TV. The show was initiated in the 1960s predicting, among many other things, a future in which people of different races worked together in harmony. This came at a time when civil rights were tearing the country apart. It was a bold move. When all

…is to move from a single leader to a leadership team. I have now worked for over 100 leaders in organizations and their senior teams… close and hands-on. The biggest constraint I see leaders face is maintaining a senior management team instead of developing a senior leadership team. Managers complete tasks, control budget, use their