No two business situations are the same, so every consulting engagement is unique. However, a few basic operating principles underlie everything I do:
- Make 1 + 1 = 3. There are no substitutes for leadership. Nonetheless, the right actions from a committed third party can catalyze the leadership process, and help leadership deliver on their agenda with speed and impact
- Help leaders take the wheel vs reinvent it. At least 80% of the solution to most leadership problems is known somewhere in the top management team – from prior experience or original thinking. Finding the right 80%, adding a 20% creative spark and getting everyone aligned behind the new / old solution is, in some ways, the task every time
- Make a little bit go a long way. Companies are dynamic organisms, often responding in surprising ways to leadership initiative. The right measured actions can usually improve business performance more assuredly than grand programs. Archimedes gave an early definition of the leadership role: ‘Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I can move the world’
- Match the move to the moment. Companies at different stages of growth need different approaches to leadership. The right actions delivered at the right time produce extraordinary impact; the moment missed can be gone forever
- Engage ‘head, heart and hands.’ Engaging the whole person gets you those extra ergs of energy when the going gets tough. Leaders who model ‘the whole person’ stand a better chance of getting the fully engaged organization necessary for competitive success