Category Archives: Performance

Six Choices when Making Group Decisions

Consensus is but one of six types of decision making. It is a worthy goal WHEN you have the time and ability to reach true consensus where each member can bring perspective, creativity and insights not available or understood by an individual acting alone. This, along with other benefits, make consensus a default choice forContinue reading “Six Choices when Making Group Decisions”

Leadership Quality Wins: Moving Beyond 10,000 Hours

What wins the race? It is the leadership quality and finesse of multiple factors that wins, not the novice conceit of speed, or the number of hours of practice. From the book, “Inner Speed Secrets: Mental Strategies to Maximize Your Racing Performance,” by Ronn Langford and Ross Bentley share insights into the nuances that also applyContinue reading “Leadership Quality Wins: Moving Beyond 10,000 Hours”

Prioritizing through Tragedy, War, Conflict and Peace

How do leaders make sense of things, especially difficult, urgent, strategic things that may include shock, pain, tragedy, as well as stress and churn? There are many lessons learned about continuously verifying and updating our information, our data, and the need to clarify, test and refocus on our organization’s purpose. The 2021 update of thisContinue reading “Prioritizing through Tragedy, War, Conflict and Peace”

One Overlooked Element that Can Stop or Supercharge Any Project, DPPE

Leaders know that good data is essential to good decisions. But what data? Finding the right data, at the right time, from the right sources is critical. Data is the first of four elements from a simple acronym DPPE that stands for Data, Purpose, Plan, Evaluate. DPPE is an easy way to describe and categorize project phases asContinue reading “One Overlooked Element that Can Stop or Supercharge Any Project, DPPE”

Seven Ways New NonProfit Leaders Succeed the First Year on the Job

Leadership skill is built upon skilled listening, including listening to yourself for health and wellness.  Busy leaders know intellectually that taking care of yourself is how you are best able to take care of others.  The challenge, in this part three of our series, continues to be putting this principle into disciplined, regular practice.  Leadership coaching, as my clients have told me, hasContinue reading “Seven Ways New NonProfit Leaders Succeed the First Year on the Job”

Nonprofit Leader Partnerships: How to Achieve the Right Balance

Like a well-played symphony, when nonprofit leaders partner well with their board, staff and volunteers, magic happens.  Though a board of directors or council holds ultimate legal and fiduciary responsibility, true success requires a solid partnership between the chief executive officer (or staff officer) (CEO / CSO) and chief elected officer, a board chair or council president.

Courage for New Leaders To Listen and Learn in the New Year

It takes courage to listen. Whether it’s a first or fifth transition to a new leader role, these non-profit leadership lessons learned are timeless. Pause, reflect, choose (from horse-guided leadership & learning.) In your first months, resist the urgent and not important tasks and follow these practical steps to ensure your success.

6 Steps Beyond Industrial Age Performance Appraisals

Let it go, let it go, let it go! Let go of performance appraisal practices and industrial age thinking. In our post 9-11, now Covid-era, no-such-thing as “New Normal” world, business models continue to evolve dramatically and surprise us. Yes, the old relic of performance appraisal from twentieth century business practices persists. For example, aContinue reading “6 Steps Beyond Industrial Age Performance Appraisals”

Curing ONE of the Seven Deadly Diseases of Management, Performance Appraisals

Entrenched habits tend to persist, mostly invisible, until poets, reformers and provocateurs start writing, talking and asking questions. They challenge us to reexamine long-standing practices that no longer fit our current world and what’s on the horizon.