Leadership Inspirations – Be Ready for Change

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“Change brings opportunities when people have been planning for it, are ready for it and have just the thing in mind to do when the new state comes into being.”

Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Harvard Business School Professor

Agile Balance – What it is… What it does… How to get it, part 2 of 2

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As in nature, Agile Balance requires an organic inside out commitment to stay on course. That’s why I always suggest planting my The Four Commitment QuestionsTM deeply to keep every Jack and Jill on plan, on target and in engaged collaboration. The Four Commitment QuestionsTM (What Can I Do More of, Less of, Start and Stop?) become part of the bedrock to insure commitment to the organization’s vision remains consistent and strong.

Once rooted into an organization’s culture, The Four Commitment QuestionsTM transform the workplace. Based on more than 20 years of research from The Leadership Practices InventoryTM (LPI) created by colleagues Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, these simple, yet effective questions take common sense and turn it into common practice allowing Agile Balance to flourish.

With Agile Balance, the individual and organizational benefits are plentiful:

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About the Author

Robert Thompson is the author of The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable. To learn more about Agile BalanceTM, contact Robert at [email protected], follow him on Twitter @RobertHThompson or subscribe to his Leadership Path newsletter at www.leaderinsideout.com.

Want to learn more about Robert Thompson and The Offsite? Listen to the StrategyDriven Podcast interview during which Robert shares with us his insights on the unique leadership challenges associated with today’s business environment.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 46 – An Interview with David Axson, author of The Management Mythbuster

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 46 – An Interview with David Axson, author of The Management Mythbuster explores the common errors made when executing time-honored strategic planning and business management practices and how to avoid these mistakes; subsequently improving management’s effectiveness and the organization’s bottom line. During our discussion, David Axson, author of The Management Mythbuster and President of the Sonax Group, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • whether many time-honored business principles need to be changed or the way in which they are implemented needs improvement
  • the role of the mission statement and the qualities of a good mission statement
  • circumstances when consultants should be hired and the actions managers should take to ensure their consultants add real value
  • principles to follow when using forecasts as a planning tool
  • how to motivate prudent long-term risk-taking even at the realization of near-term costs
  • why there is no such thing as an IT project
  • what should be done to enhance the value of financial information such that it creates real, value-adding decision-making information for executives and managers

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights David shares in The Management Mythbuster and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from his website, www.DavidAxson.com.   David’s book, The Management Mythbuster, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

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About the Author

David Axson, author of The Management Mythbuster, is President of the Sonax Group, a business advisory firm. He is a former head of corporate planning at Bank of America and was a co-founder of The Hackett Group. He is a sought-after speaker and writer on business strategy and management and is widely regarded as a thought leader in the industry. To read David’s complete biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:56 — 48.0MB)

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Receive a StrategyDriven Guest Contributor’s Book with Your Annual Membership

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Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success

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How do you know if a road will get you where you want to go if you don’t know where you are headed? You need a destination in mind to be able to evaluate and select a route that will get you there. Similarly, a career strategy enables career success.

Career success starts with understanding your long-term goal. Most people have an idea about the next step in their career, their next job: I want a promotion; I want to be a marketing manager or a financial analyst. That’s a great start but what is your long-term objective? I find in interviewing that many people are uncomfortable answering the question, “Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?”

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About the Author

Kathryn Ullrich heads Kathryn Ullrich Associates, a Silicon Valley executive search firm, and Alumni Career Services for UCLA Anderson School of Management. She is the author of Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success (2010), and may be reached through www.GettingToTheTop.com.