Thoughts from the Pandemic Era 2/3

In early June I read a thought-provoking quote from Connor Brown of the Ottawa Senators hockey club. He stated “It’s hard to do planning if you don’t know what you’re planning for”. It’s hard to argue with this observation. It seems to sum up what I’ve been feeling for 14 weeks now. In the absence…

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Thoughts from the Pandemic Era 3/3

Connor Brown’s quote got me thinking. In these times of uncertainty and ambiguity, it’s more important than ever for organizations to define future success and to articulate various possible scenarios. In the short term should we be striving for significantly lesser financial objectives or greater financial objectives (e.g. the grocery chains)? Should we be setting…

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Today’s Challenge – Separating the Wheat from the Chaff 1/3

In today’s complex, confusing, confounding and fast-paced world, it is more important than ever to be able to distinguish real overall business performance from intermediate measures and “noise”             We are inundated on a daily basis with talk of AI, Analytics, Key Performance Indicators and new paradigms to judge business success (such as “hits on…

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Today’s Challenge – Separating the Wheat from the Chaff 2/3

Let’s turn to the world of sport to better understand this notion.  In regular season NHL hockey, the standings show games won, lost, overtime losses, goals for, goals against and total points. However, only one measure really counts: Total Points, the result of all subsidiary factors.  The regular season is won by the team with…

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Today’s Challenge – Separating the Wheat from the Chaff 3/3

In business, we can rationalize performance around such factors as activity level, potential, customer satisfaction, quality and more but ultimately the only true measure of overall performance is sustainable or normalized profit.  The profit metric is the total score which sums up the effectiveness of all strategies, tactics, actions and follow through in a given…

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In Today’s Polarized World, Listening is a Lost Art 1/3

The world at large is suffering from an aversion to the middle ground, moderation and grey areas. Social media demands that we make immediate judgments as to whether we like something or not. Politics the world over seems to be trending far left or far right. No longer is it fashionable to seek compromise, be…

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In Today’s Polarized World, Listening is a Lost Art 2/3

Business owners and leaders must work hard to avoid these overarching societal trends. We must not lose sight of the need for the softer skills associated with listening to customers, staff, other stakeholders and one’s own sense of what is ethical in a fast-paced judgmental world. There exists a real need for healthy debate, fostered…

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The Forgotten Element of Management 101 – Managing Up 2/3

An under-recognized break in the chain of communication is a manager’s or supervisor’s desire and/or ability to communicate “upwards” within their organization. While we routinely read and learn about how to engage staff and be a team player, far less is written about “managing up” within one’s organization. Continue to Part 3

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