excellence

Are You an Elite Leader?

A simple definition of elite leadership can be hard to pin down, but we all know it when we see it. I’ve been studying and working with elite leaders for years – from military teams to Olympic athletes and high performing work teams – and it’s obvious when I meet them. But what is it,…

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Why Winning is So Hard

News flash – winning is hard! If you don’t think so, just ask the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, who got spanked by my Broncos on this season’s NFL opener.  Of course, they didn’t plan to lose that game. In fact, they had every intention of winning. But sometimes things don’t go according to…

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Appreciating the Best of the Best

The past few months have been a bit stressful for the Green household. My husband and I decided to move to Denver based on a number of factors we have been considering for some time. Mark got a job teaching in one of the toughest and lowest performing middle schools there (by choice) and started…

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Don’t Just Do It, Get It Done!

I work with, support and present to hundreds of CEOs and business owners each year. In a world that changes as quickly as ours, they are getting more and more worried about old, entrenched ways of thinking and doing as a source of real vulnerability for their organizations. Most of them are also deeply concerned…

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Five Things Managers Don’t Do That Undermine Excellence in the Workplace

Want to eliminate excellence in your organization? Then make sure to not do these five things.

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Redefining Excellence for Today’s World

Thirty years ago, Tom Peters published an incredibly influential business book, In Search of Excellence. In it, he defined eight characteristics of excellent companies: a bias for action, staying close to the customer, autonomy and entrepreneurship, productivity through people, clear and compelling organizational values, focusing on what you do best, operating with a lean staff,…

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Innovating Every Day

Who doesn’t recognize the need to constantly innovate today? After all, just look around at all that is new in our world in the past few years. Are you twittering? 1 million+ others are. Do you have a product or service video up on YouTube? 25 million+ people do. And are you LinkedIn or participating…

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Ask Yourself: What are the Most Important Questions I Should Answer to Drive Success?

2009 is underway. It promises to be an exciting ride likely filled with more uncertainty and higher expectations than ever before. And despite the doom and gloom consuming a lot of the space around us, you can focus and succeed even in the toughest of times. After all, a lot of people and companies have…

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Keeping Employees Engaged

During tough times, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep yourself and others focused. Our brain’s reaction to fear kicks in and we pursue a variety of options just in case.  As noted in most of my blogs during the previous few months, “tough times are not the time to diffuse your energies.”  Focus, focus, focus!…

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Managing and Leading in 2009

In a previous blog, (The Times, They Keep Changing), I outlined the vast changes impacting our world of work today. Today’s blog entry focuses on what is critical to be a great manager and leader in today’s changing world. Managers and leaders need to have a more complete set of competencies, skills and traits. Both…

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Thanksgiving & Thriving

What a great time to pause, breathe deeply and reflect on all there is to be grateful for! Without using too many cliches or tired phrases, this is the time of year when we most think about the many things to appreciate in our lives:family, friends, clients, our health, abilities, opportunities, maybe even great leaders…

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Thanksgiving & Thriving

What a great time to pause, breathe deeply and reflect on all there is to be grateful for! Without using too many cliches or tired phrases, this is the time of year when we most think about the many things to appreciate in our lives:family, friends, clients, our health, abilities, opportunities, maybe even great leaders…

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