The Project Triangle hides an important leadership lesson. Put simply, the Triangle says you have 3 objectives when completing a task. You can have it good, fast or cheap. Pick any two. You can’t have all 3. Good and fast = not cheap Good and cheap = not fast Fast…
90. Are you Efficient?
Efficiency is a key leadership challenge. How to achieve what you need to do at the lowest cost. Your challenge as a leader who has to manage costs is the struggle between what you say you want (lower costs), and all the other things you really want. Not just obvious…
89. Are you safe?
Employee engagement is not a “soft” topic. It’s hard work. Being nice is not enough. There are plenty of friendly, agreeable leaders with deeply unhappy teams, who have failed to deliver results. One reason for those “nice failures” is that friendliness and fairness alone don’t create engagement. Engagement doesn’t just…
88. Do you hide behind rules?
Discipline is important, but only when it helps achieve an outcome. Making the best decisions is important too. Making decisions is a key responsibility of leadership. Using rules to enforce compliance can be a way of avoiding hard decisions. Your decision to go against the “rules” can define your leadership.…
87. Do you pay Attention to Detail?
The world is made of somebody’s work Leadership isn’t an abstract topic, it’s a contact sport. Contact between what the leader thinks and does, and what those in the team think & do. Between what you think and what they do… If you’re not making contact are you leading, or…
86. Are you Decisive ?
“More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It will steal you blind…” Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Statesman, 106-43BC Leaders are paid to make decisions. How they make them matters. An indecisive leader isn’t just slow, they’re uncertain, and likely uncommitted. Maybe afraid of…
85. What’s your real Mission?
Everyone has at least 2 Missions. Their team’s mission and their own. The one they talk about and the one they don’t. It could be that your own is so deep that you don’t know it’s there. Or don’t want to admit it’s there. Less like an elephant in the…
84. What catches your eye?
Doing something you like is easy. Leadership requires spending time on things you don’t like. That means as a leader you need to be very aware of what you like and what you don’t. What games can you play to ensure you pay attention to what’s important but isn’t attractive?…
83. Do you follow rules?
Whatever you think of the NBA or Netball Australia’s different handling of their players’ and sponsors concerns, you have to admit that both were big Leadership tests. And maybe be grateful that you didn’t have to decide for either… Making decisions based on principles or values is a good thing,…
82. Be careful what you pay attention to.
You can tell a lot about an organization by the quality of the leaders it appoints. Did you ever appoint someone to a role who failed badly? Did you ever have an incompetent peer or boss and wonder how they got promoted? Did you ever fail in a role you…