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Before you Decide What to Fix, Ask this…
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: When something stops producing the result we expect, our instinct is often to start fixing. Before deciding what needs to change, it may be more useful to identify what changed first. When anything stops working, our attention usually goes straight to the problem. The temptation is to…
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What Is the Minimum Condition Necessary for Your Purpose to Be Fulfilled?
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: We often confuse what we are accustomed to doing with what must be done, gradually adding conditions until the threshold for action becomes unnecessarily high. Asking what minimum condition is necessary for the purpose to be fulfilled can help us separate what is essential from everything we…
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Hard Truths on Soft Skills: Mindset and Stamina Matter
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: A positive mindset and physical stamina are often treated as soft priorities, even though both directly influence the quality of our decisions, our resilience and our ability to keep going. When we repeatedly postpone movement, rest and proper care because we are too busy working, we compromise…
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The Myth of the One Formula for Business Success
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal Post in two sentences: There is no single formula for business success because every business is shaped by its own people, timing, strengths, constraints and circumstances. The real work is to pay attention to what your business is showing you and discover the truths that are unique to it. There is…
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Complete Fearlessness Is a Recipe for Ruin
Yesterday I wrote that cynicism is not wisdom. It is often fear wearing the mask of intelligence. Today, I’d like to explore the opposite extreme. Complete fearlessness. We often celebrate fearless leaders, fearless entrepreneurs, and fearless decision-makers. Yet complete fearlessness is not a virtue. In business, it can be be a recipe for ruin. Fear…
better decisions, business leadership, business strategy, courage, courage vs fear, critical thinking, entrepreneurship, fear, fearlessness, Leadership & Practice, leadership development, leadership mindset, organizational learning, resilience, risk management, Strategic Alignment Journal, Strategic thinking -
No Amount of Thinking Can Answer a Market Question
Leaders are paid to think. They analyze, forecast, model scenarios, debate options, and refine strategies. Thinking is essential. But there is one question that thinking alone can never answer: Will the market care? That answer doesn’t exist in a boardroom. It exists in the interaction between your idea and reality. You can spend months perfecting…
business growth, business strategy, continuous learning, customer insights, Decision-Making, entrepreneurship, evidence based management, innovation, Leadership & Practice, market validation, organizational leadership, strategic alignment, Strategic Alignment Journal, Strategic thinking, test and learn -
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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Beware of Inertia
Have you ever walked into a room looking for something and forgotten why you entered? For a moment, you stand there trying to reconstruct your original purpose. You moved and are now standing in the room yet somewhere along the way, you forgot your reason for being there in the first place. Organizations can experience…
Get Clarity before the Fix
