Blog
Space Owner or Place Holder?
One of the frustrations I hear from firm leaders is when their professionals won’t step up, be responsible and make suggestions and decisions that are theirs to make. Instead, their staff rely too much on others to pick up the slack. That one void in their staff makes...
You Must Self-Regulate
Recently I read a comparative study on high performer research that found a common trait among the studies: high performers get things done. It’s no surprise that accomplishment has become a recognized criterion in determining high performance. This one factor caught...
When Your Best Isn’t
What do you do when doing your best isn’t good enough? You do the usual best things and put forth your usual best efforts but they don’t achieve what you’re pursuing. Then what? Should you expect more of yourself? From others? Or should you just shrug your shoulders...
Factory Foreman Isn’t Enough
The research is clear on what engages professionals: learning, developing and growing. These are absolutely critical to knowledge workers (FYI: that’s you and your colleagues). That means MANDATORY, not optional. That’s what separates 21st century professionals from...
Things Don’t Just Happen
When an important client or key staff leaves, an engagement budget is blown, or something seems to just come out of the blue, it’s tempting to say "it just happened." While it may appear to be out of your control or have any ability to anticipate it, the truth is,...
Do This For Loyal Clients
Like every professional, you want your clients to love you and never leave you. You see it as a tribute to your professionalism, expertise and service, and rightly so. When clients do leave you, it doesn’t sit well or feel good, regardless of the reason they left....
Your 3 Sources of Power
High performers learn how to draw on three sources of power to make their performance remarkable. They know how to access them and how to use them to keep themselves moving. The first is your motivation. It propels you to do and be your best. What gets you up in the...
Don’t Be A Wimp
I’m addicted to watching Olympians perform. It’s amazing how these athletes train for years and put it all on the line in one event. Athletes at this level have learned some important lessons. One that I recall is when Ashley Wagner, an American figure skater, was...
Entitled, Employed, Engaged or Empowered?
All performance begins with your frame of mind. How you see yourself and your work predict your actions and behavior. I’ve identified four perspectives that generally describe how you could see yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re in your first year or you’re...
A Race or a Rose?
Effective Leaders know how to approach certain situations in ways that reinforce why they are leaders in the first place. They seem to inherently know how to engage to produce the best results. Their words and actions are usually spot-on. How do they do it? There are...
