“We” care so much what others think. Why is that? Is it ok for a CEO to work from home when in their hometown, treating “the office” as another place for meeting & greeting? When an employee works at home can they be productive? Can one think really well even if not wearing a suit? Is it an embarrassment or a luxury to hold business meetings from a home office?

Break free. Be authentic. If you know you can lead from whereever you are - do it. If you know you can be productive for yourself or others from wherever you are - suggest it.

The way of working changed a long time ago for some of us. As is the way of things, now it is becoming more accepted and even relished. Are you open to this?

Feel great & do even better! Who doesn’t want that for themselves? Who wouldn’t want that for others? So of course we foster feeling great at work. whoops! screech. halt. back up. We don’t? Why not? Mostly because what we think we need to do is hard. But they really are NOT what is needed, or wanted. I call these Better Business Management Myths and I’ve listed three for you below: (more…)

Risk & Benefit

This post is about failure and success. It will likely resonate greatest with those who think big, create strategic plans and take risks to see those strategies executed. (more…)

In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.

I’ve noted that as you work through this series you are bound to run into questions (I’ve opened up Ask Lori. for questions to me currently at no cost to you) and bottlenecks…

In this post I address a common question that often becomes a bottleneck, as it seems complex: determining up front the cause and effect relationship between objectives in your Strategy:

Question: Does cause-and-effect matter? When is it critical (figuring it out is slowing us down)? (more…)

In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.

If you are just starting this series, you can catch up by reviewing the earlier posts. Find a recap at the end of this post.  In this post we’re focused on two points:

1. You must measure what you expect to get, in order to get it.

2. Instead of doing things (those things as you’ve always done them) right, you must be doing the right things right to be successful.

And I provide you with action you can take right now - using information you’ve already gathered in Job Descriptions and Performance Reviews - to improve performance now for your company.

In the last step of this Series you collected important materials, many and maybe all of which you are using to plan what you expect and see if you’ve realized that. Some of you may even have information that clearly shows where you were, and were not aligned, leading from your plan to your reality. Most of you won’t have this clear story connecting expectation to reality. You will soon if you are following these steps.

I listed five (5) groups of materials in Step 5. Since you may have recently completed Performance Reviews for last year, I’m going to start with those. If the Review does not specify the most important duties for a role, please also grab the Job Description associated with each Review. There is a huge opportunity waiting for you in this process, which you can start realizing benefits from right away, so bear with me… (more…)

In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.

Let me intro this next step before we recap, so that those that have been reading along don’t have to repeat (thanks to those who gave me this good feedback; the recap is at the end of the post)…

In Step 4 you removed roadblocks to aligning people’s actions with Strategy. Woot! Let’s get going!

For Step #5, collect these materials:

1. Your 1-3 Critical Strategic Objectives, which are now mapped to show relationship and the priorities of these Objectives and their Steps

See the Recap below for links to these prior steps. Questions? Click to “Ask Lori”

2. Your Annual Budget

If you do not have access to this, even for your department, you may want to pass this blog and Leadership series on to someone who does. (more…)

In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.

Recap:
In Step 1 you selected up to three of the most critical strategic themes or objectives. In Step 2 you mapped these themes to your Strategy so that key objectives can be prioritized and contrasted (it is not uncommon to have conflicting objectives that need to be sorted out). And in Step 3 you prioritized so that you’d be sure that what is most important gets done.

Now before we move on, it is critical to have a plan for identifying and removing roadblocks. You will face at least one. I’m going to list a few of the most common ones here, along with answers that have worked for others. I’d love to have comments and additions from readers.

Here are three common roadblocks to getting what you expect: (more…)

In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.

Recap:
In Step 1 you selected up to three of the most critical strategic themes or objectives. In Step 2 you mapped these themes to your Strategy so that key objectives can be prioritized and contrasted (it is not uncommon to have conflicting objectives that need to be sorted out).

Step 3 is to prioritize so that you are doing the right things. (more…)

In this Leadership series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.

In Step 1 you selected up to 3 of the most critical strategic themes or objectives. I offered a few examples and set up the Ask Lori! page to give you the opportunity to share your themes or objectives, or ask questions. Ask Lori! is still open for Step 1 and now also open for our next step: Mapping Strategy. Now you will prepare to share these objectives or themes with those who need to act in order for Strategy to be executed.

I’ve decided to share with you how our company is taking these same steps. I hope this helps clarify the process…

For Abrige & C-Secure the most critical objectives fall into these themes:
“Get Visible!” & “Systematize Everything.” I’ve logged these into Abrige STRATEGY, below: (more…)

Overwhelmed with your days right now? Underwhelmed with your business or job?

Let me re-introduce you to …connection… starting with the people around you…

I’m a bottom-line gal… and I am here to tell you to get social within your organization. I am positive that doing so will improve performance across the organization. No worries if you haven’t really excelled at this to date. We can tell and if you look around you, you are not the only one. (and it’s not your fault entirely… technology, and actually performance management systems specifically, has played a role in this trouble and I’ll get to that later in this series). But you CAN realize improvement quickly, by making a few small shifts in how you connect with people.

So how you do this without changing who you are? (more…)