“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.

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…)

Question: How do you get employees motivated and passionate about the mission of the organization so that they strive for self improvement and improved work performance without micromanaging from management or finger pointing at their colleagues?

Lori’s answer:

You’ve put a lot of great keywords into your question: motivated, passionate, mission…
This tells me what a great leader you are – congrats!

But guess what? -No one in your company will care about the practice in the way that you do. That is because the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) for you IS your company; that’s not the case for your employees.

I also love that you brought up finger-pointing. It is a sign of unclear roles and expectations (read: measures).

(more…)

Lori Leavitt Evans is a creator, builder and analyst. Her passion is to create environments that create the appropriate energy for the purpose.  This translates into business environments that are collaborative, innovative, nimble and value-focused.

For a professional/personal mix of sound-bites … follow via Twitter: @LoriLeavitEvans.

A musician and artist in her pre-career years, she started in interior design and architecture in college and ended up with two degrees with honors in economics and accounting. This was followed by two accounting certifications, CMA and CFM, then followed by an executive MBA from the Foster School of Business at University of Washington.

Lori rose within the business world, mostly in manufacturing, oil and healthcare, and including Tree Top, Pacific Coast Feather, Tosco and Aon. In December 2000, Lori launched Abrige Corp., to “connect people to business performance,” and focused first on helping organizations move more adeptly through complexities such as acquisitions, partner due diligence and privacy compliance.  In 2006 the C-Secure Systems division was created to “connect machines to business performance.”

Success for Lori is when her work helps people to “do the right things right.”  She brings her passion, and action-oriented methods, to life through speaking, consulting, coaching and technology.  She specializes in performance and risk management, and has worked with hundreds of leaders and their organizations.

The time for people doing the right things right is now.  Now more than ever people at all levels are distracted. Leaders are not getting the information they need to make sound decisions. People are not clear how they can add value, or if they even have a voice.

The Collaborative-Action blog was born to help drive this message, and actions that can be taken right now, to HR and Executive leaders.

What message would you communicate to your employees if you are (or were to be) a leader of a company suffering from lost profits, lost customers and/or lost value during these still uncertain times? How would you communicate it? What would you expect the employees to do next? What might you tell employees about changes you/leadership will make? How would you handle your own emotions caused by uncertainty? How might you refocus yourself, your mastermind (those around you that help with decisions) and your employees on solutions? How might you keep the communication… and the positive sparks it should create…alive?