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Our Decisions Can Never Consistently Rise Above Our Understanding of Ourselves
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal Post in two sentences: Leadership development invests heavily in developing what leaders do, yet pays far less attention to understanding the person doing it. Our decisions can never consistently rise above our understanding of ourselves. My reasoned choice is as indifferent to the reasoned choice of my neighbor as to his…
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Stop Issuing RFPs Based on Assumed Needs
I was asked to review a Terms of Reference a couple months ago for a twelve-month Commercial Marketing Advisor. It was a thoughtful document. The objectives were clear, the scope of work was comprehensive, and the desired outcomes were well defined. As I read through it, however, I found myself thinking less about the proposed…
assumptions, business decisions, business leadership, business strategy, commercial sustainability, consulting, decision quality, Decision-Making, diagnostic thinking, executive leadership, governance, Leadership & Practice, leadership insights, management, organizational diagnosis, organizational effectiveness, organizational learning, pre-decision diagnosis, problem solving, procurement, requests for proposal, RFP, root cause analysis, strategic reflection, Strategic thinking -
What Happens When the Obvious is Misleading?
The obvious deserves attention. It just doesn’t always deserve to be part of the conclusion. We are conditioned to respond to what we can see. Most of us don’t witness the beginning of a problem. We encounter it only after it has worked its way to the surface. By then, what we call “the problem”…
business leadership, business strategy, continuous improvement, critical thinking, Decision-Making, executive leadership, Leadership & Practice, leadership development, Organizational Alignment, organizational development, organizational effectiveness, pre-decision diagnostics, problem solving, root cause analysis, sensemaking, strategic diagnosis, Strategic thinking, strategy, systems thinking -
Seize the Moment, not the Day
We have all heard the phrase Carpe Diem. Seize the day. In Choose Hard, M.J. DeMarco offers a subtle but important shift. Don’t seize the day. Seize the moment. We don’t make decisions in days, weeks, months, or years. We make them in moments. Every conversation. Every email. Every purchase. Every difficult discussion we avoid.…
better decisions, business growth, business strategy, continuous learning, critical thinking, Decision-Making, executive leadership, Leadership & Practice, leadership development, leadership mindset, management, organizational effectiveness, organizational leadership, strategic alignment, Strategic thinking -
The Leaders We Have Vs. Leaders We Need
One of the defining strategic challenges of this decade is the widening gap between the leaders we have and the leaders we need. This is not simply a leadership shortage. It is a leadership mismatch. Organizations continue to promote people into roles that were designed for yesterday’s problems while expecting them to solve tomorrow’s. The…
adaptive leadership, business strategy, change management, continuous learning, executive leadership, future of leadership, future of work, Leadership & Practice, leadership design, leadership development, leadership mindset, organizational culture, organizational development, Strategic Alignment Journal, strategic leadership, systems thinking -
What truths has your organization become unable to hear?
Every organization depends on information flowing upward. Customers complain. Processes break. Risks emerge. Frontline employees notice inefficiencies long before they are likely to appear on a management report. The quality of leadership decisions is directly tied to the quality of information leaders receive. When people stop speaking honestly, reality becomes filtered. Leaders begin making decisions…
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These False Certainties may be Costing you a Fortune
Psychologists have long observed that human beings sometimes hold beliefs that help them cope with uncertainty, anxiety, or difficult realities. These beliefs are often referred to as protective delusions. Their purpose is not necessarily to help us see reality more accurately. Their purpose is to help us function. An entrepreneur launching a new business despite…
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Why “One Size Fits All” Decision Training Fails
There is value in teaching and training leaders to become more effective in areas like decision-making, communication, delegation, negotiation, strategic planning, conflict resolution, emotional regulation, and execution. Organizations need these things. Teams function better when leaders can slow down enough to evaluate options, regulate reactions, ask better questions, and avoid making decisions from pure panic…
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Clients buy for emotional relief, not technical accuracy
The consultant who sounds certain. The advisor who reduces complexity into one clean answer. The framework communicated with confidence. A polished implementation roadmap. When pressure is high and consequences feel immediate, clients are more than likely to gravitate toward the person who makes the discomfort stop fastest. A confident answer can feel like oxygen when…
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Leadership behaviour is hardly ever questioned seriously
Discussed? Yes. Constantly. Employees discuss it amongst themselves. Citizens discuss it amongst themselves. Families discuss it amongst themselves after political speeches, church meetings, board meetings, management changes and community fallout. Entire organizations can quietly organize themselves around the behavioural patterns of one leader while pretending the real issue is workflow, morale, communication or “culture.” But…
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