Leadership Archives – Page 12 of 14

15 Feb 2010

Are You Working on the Right Things?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-06T12:47:34-06:00February 15th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

Lately I have been struggling with over-commitment and more things to do than time. Between the business, hobbies, personal relationships, and other things that need to get done, sometimes there is just not enough time in the day.

When all else fails, start making lists and prioritize.

I was reviewing Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People“. In it he has the following diagram:

Quadrant I – Tasks

These are things that are both important and urgent; problems and fires that cannot be ignored. This is reactive work. […]

10 Feb 2010

The Three Faces of an Entrepreneur

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:58:32-06:00February 10th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership|

The Leader (Entrepreneur)

This is the role most frequently associated with being an entrepreneur. A leader has a clear picture of the future and inspires others to share it. Vision and passion drive the creation of a new business.

The Manager

This role is essential to take the dream and make it into a world class business. There are two distinct types: business and people.

A great people manager is a catalyst to get the maximum results from people in alignment with business goals. Great people management is a talent that is not always learnable.

A business manager handles the building of the business (systems, processes, […]

9 Feb 2010

Entrepreneurs, Creation and Enlightenment

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:58:37-06:00February 9th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

A couple of quotes from "E-Myth Mastery" by Michael Gerber that I found interesting:

"Entrepreneurship is, first of all, the power to create.

But creation is not something you do.

Creation is something that is done through you."

and

"Your job is not to become an entrepreneur. It is not to create.

Your job is to commit to the process of becoming an entrepreneur and then to practice what entrepreneurs do so that entrepreneurship can find you when you've practiced enough to be ready.

Commitment and practice."

What is not stated here is how long? That is because the […]

8 Feb 2010

Great, Good Enough and Poor

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:58:42-06:00February 8th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

It is important to distinguish.

You only have 24 hours in your day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year and who knows how many years.

Your company only has so many people and the same constraints on time.

Great

Great effort or great results? I think the world rewards you mostly for results over the long-term. Sure you can put in a lot of hours on something, but if the results aren't great?

Because being great at something usually requires a lot of effort over a long period of time, you must choose wisely; you can't be great at everything.

Focus […]

1 Feb 2010

Look After The Customer

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:58:54-06:00February 1st, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Sales|

I've had it in mind to write on this subject for a while. It is so easy to find examples where companies don't look after their customers as much as they should, but harder to find examples where they do.

Unfortunately, my experiences lately have been more negative than positive; and I find that surprising when everyone is saying they are different and understand their customers; and even more bizarre in a down economy.

The idea is that if you find a great product or service that people want and focus on great customer service, the market will reward you.

If that is […]

7 Jan 2010

Who You Are – Consistency

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:03-06:00January 7th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Sales|

Over the past few months, we've had a few clients approach us that had important work that needed to get done quickly; and they had limited options. You may be thinking…

Ka-Ching!

Wrong.

You may get the business once that way, but people will ultimately remember you hosed them.

That is not how things are done here. Here we value ethics, honesty and long-term relationships.

We believe we are entitled to fair compensation for our work including reasonable profit margins (every business needs this). But we don't believe in "between a rock and a hard place" pricing.

Sure, if costs are higher because of a rush […]

31 Dec 2009

Why Not Be Great?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:16-06:00December 31st, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

It is funny how the closing of a year brings reflection on the past… and a fleeting commitment to fix all the things you weren't happy with.

Sure, getting rid of some destructive bad habits is a good thing. But is spending your time dwelling on your mistakes and trying to fix your non-talents (weaknesses) the way to go?

In "First, Break all the Rules…" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, their research basically determined that you should focus on your talents and figure out ways to minimize the impact of your non-talents.

This is based on the science […]

29 Dec 2009

Sales – Greatness Versus Failure

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:21-06:00December 29th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Mindset and Motivation, Sales|

What makes one salesperson great and another fail?

We often think greatness is the opposite of failure. That if we look at why people fail and do the opposite we will succeed. Perhaps this is because it seems logical… the easy solution. Maybe the opposite of greatness (or failure) is merely average. Maybe greatness and failure are merely variations on each other.

This is discussed in "First, Break all the Rules… " by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

"By studying the best salespeople, great managers have learned that the best, just like the worst, suffer call reluctance. Apparently the best […]

20 Nov 2009

Great Leadership and Management

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:20-06:00November 20th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

The age old discussion around what is the difference between great leaders and managers continues.

Marcus Buckingham in "The One Thing You Need to Know" sheds a little light on this.

Great managers are focused on maximizing the performance of the people they manage by developing talent. Great managers are catalysts… speed up the reaction between each employee's talents and the company's goals. They are motivated by helping people grow.

Great leaders rally people to a better future. The focus on the future and the drive to accomplish something new/better is what drives a leader.

Some people have both traits […]

2 Nov 2009

Plan For Success

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:21:26-06:00November 2nd, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

Here in Alberta, Canada the federal and provincial governments have been telling everyone we need to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus. Yup this is a nasty strain of flu that is killing the young and the healthy.

The media has been playing this up too with stories in almost every edition.

Initially there were long line-ups and a run on the vaccination clinics.

Last week, someone I know was at an adult dance class and the instructor was telling the students they would not be touching hands tonight and that the government had decided to focus on high priority groups and the rest […]