How To Be a Great Boss
It’s pretty easy to be a bad boss but much more difficult to be a great boss. Being a bad boss takes no effort or thought. Contrary, being a great boss does take effort and thought. During any challenging time in business…a depressed economy, faltering sales, increased competition, or even a global pandemic…it is increasingly…
Mentoring: A Major Step Toward Success
Yes, even small businesses and SMEs have a need to mentor. Mentoring is a relationship that is formed between two individuals…one with more experience, more knowledge, and more expertise and one with less experience, less knowledge, and less expertise in a particular subject, profession, or position. Mentoring is not reserved for any one type of…
How To Be An Effective Leader During A Pandemic
Businesses have always had the need for effective leaders. Certainly, many businesses prosper despite not having a strong leader at the helm. The super, successful businesses, however, have really effective leaders. They know how to make the right decisions at the right times. They know how to motivate employees and navigate obstacles. They have a…
5 Management Rules for Being a Thoughtful, Effective Executive
Open communication and reasonable expectations are among the attributes of any admirable leader. I’ve been in executive positions for about a decade now. While it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience, I can’t say that I started out as the CEO I am today. In fact, I got off to a pretty …
Three Quotes That Inspire Great Leadership And Success
I’m a fan of reading inspirational and motivational quotes. I often find a great quote and share it with my team at Shepard Presentations, and sometimes with the readers of this column as well. That brings me to Dan Sullivan, creator of the Strategic Coach® program. Dan is a great coach who is full …
The Five Roles of the Mature Leader (SSIR)
The Punk Rock of Business: Applying a Punk Rock Attitude in the Modern Business Era “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” —Tom …
The Definition of Process
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about process improvement lately. I think some of my frustration with current process improvement methodologies is that we don’t properly define process. The common process mapping acronym SIPOC (Supplier – Input – Process – Output – Customer) leaves off what I believe is the most important part of…
The Process Leadership Show, Ep. 5
In this episode, Brian and Craig explore the final side of The Creativity Cube – Collaboration and Conflict.
The 4 Levels of Process Mapping, Part 2
A few weeks ago, I published a post about the Four Levels of Process Mapping. Several colleagues have asked that I elaborate on the Management View and the Process View. If you recall, the Management view shows the major areas where work-in-process inventory may be held by the process and the major flows of data,…
The Process Leadership Show, Ep. 4
In Episode 4 of The Process Leadership Show, Brian and Craig discuss two more sides of The Creativity Cube: Criteria and Cultivation. The Criteria side relates to how ideas, once generated, are chosen. Craig present how to determine criteria, and then how to use those criteria to choose from our ideas. The Cultivation side is…
The Process Leadership Show Ep. 3
In this episode of The Process Leadership Show, Craig and Brian discuss the third side of the Creativity Cube: Creators. Creators are tools that are used to spark new ideas. More advanced than simple brainstorming, Creators challenge our thinking. For more information about Better Brainstorming using The Creativity Cube, head to brainstorm.coach.
Process Purpose and Process Quality
In last week’s post, I discussed how Purpose is missing from the typical process mapping tool SIPOC (Suppler – Input – Process – Output – Customer) and how adding it can positively affect our process improvement. Today, I’d like to discuss how Purpose affects process quality. There has long been a debate in the quality…