9g Leadership Newsletter
It's All About Acceleration!
December 2006 - Vol 2, Issue 4
In This Issue
Sign Up
Previous eNews Articles
Hello,
 

As a reminder you said you were going to do these 3 things:
1.Let Us Know below, or by clicking signup -  

2.if you would like to have 3 reminders sent to you with each e-Newsletter

3.Custom Field 3

It's that time of year, the lull before new beginnings. What are your plans? Are you going to start over? Do you plan to do it right this time? All too often this time of year brings feelings, resolutions, and motivations to make changes you shoulda, woulda, coulda but didn't!

In all the board retreats and reinventions we work we nearly always see the most common shortfall is in the area of accountability. People, just like you, are pretty good at coming up with a long-range vision, developing a strategy, and listing the actual S.M.A.R.T. goals. The shortfall is in accountability.

We've had feedback, many times, that the three items, listed above, had been forgotten. So why is that and what can you do about it? How about putting a recurring task in your calendar? Have it pop up on your calendar every week, month, whatever to remind you of what you deemed important.

Hoping you take the time to do a "hot wash" of the past year. What did you do right? What mistakes were made? How do you do better next round? Then, go to the bottom of this page and update the three reminders. We'll send you a reminder every quarter!

Bob's article, A Few Thoughts, shares a few more thoughts on this concept. Grady, Sam and Pete share some perspective on Communication, Reinvention, Coaching and Life in the Fast Lane.

We hope you enjoy and wish you all the best this holiday season!

As we approach the end of another outstanding year I can’t help but reflect on the wonderful people with whom we work, the challenges they face and the opportunity to have a real impact on those around us. Thank you for letting us be part of your lives.

Motivated by recent, personal experience, I’d like to discuss three major themes. I understand you may have heard some of this previously. That being said, I need to continually remind myself of the basic principles so critical to organizational success and assume you do to!
Communicating Change - At the Worker Level.
Why is it that we see so many failures in organizational changes of direction? The lines of communication are clearly drawn, and exceptional communicators are sending the message; so why does it not take root with the front-line worker? The communication channel being used is not effective!

We have seen it time and again, especially in big organizations. Management wants to change the direction of the organization, so they develop a slogan and new values and roll out the new plan, with much fanfare, at big meetings where the CEO addresses the masses, sometimes via video conference. The problem is they do not get the desired result from front-line workers. Why not?

Read on...
Reinvention & Balance: They Work.
I have a comfortable life. With an inflation-adjusted pension from my first job and personal retirement accounts from the three that followed I consult part time, travel to see family and friends regularly, and play golf during the week when the course isn’t busy. I like being in control and keeping things balanced, and both requirements were being met until everything changed.

We were just pulling off the ferry in Seattle headed for eastern Washington and Canada when the cell phone rang. It was one of my children and he was going into the hospital for emergency surgery; we turned the car around, got back on the ferry, and had airline tickets for the east coast the next day. Four days later the surgery revealed that my son, with a wife and three little girls, was very ill and would need long term care in his home.

Read on...
Coaching your people for performance improvement...and not ticking them off.
I wrote in previous articles about using coaching as a leadership tool. Front line managers have the capability and, more importantly, the opportunity to coach their people on a regular basis. Used as part of the career counseling effort, coaching provides the means to address deficiencies in skill sets required as part of the employee’s job.

Through a definitive and comprehensive counseling program, a manager has the mechanism at hand to always let employee’s know where they stand and also the means to improve any areas in which they are lacking. People are uniformly grateful for help they receive that may enhance their job performance and perhaps help them move up within the organizational structure. Most leaders have the capability to broach the subject of coaching their people in accordance with the results of their counseling.
Read on...
Business at the Speed of Light - and Accelerating.
Wow! Another year—where has the time gone? Do you ever stop and ask yourself, “Why does time seem to go so fast?” I’ll help you understand why you feel that way, but let’s start with an understanding of the business decision cycle. Our front-line combat troops use a process known as the OODA (Orient-Observe-Decide-Act) loop. The cutting edge of technology is important because you can exploit an enemy if you can get inside his OODA loop (e.g. you execute two OODA cycles during his one); he acts on information from your first act while you have already taken advantage of weaknesses you found during your first action. Businesses work the same way; as someone has said, “Business is combat!” Now, let’s look at the speed of the business decision loop.
Read on...

To update or enter your 3 goals please click the Update Profile/Email Address link seen at the bottom of the page, alternatively you can fill out the signup box on the bottom of our home page, www.9gs.org. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to those you think would benefit most, this can be done by clicking the forward email link below.

It's All About Acceleration,
The 9gs Team
9g Enterprises, Inc.

email: newsletter@9gs.org
phone: 940-748-2600
web: http://www.9gs.org