Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Here are three helpful leadership tips from author Neil Smith -- from his new book, co-authored with Patricia O'Connell,  How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things : People say they cannot find the time to do things, yet they always find the time to fix things when they break.  Companies need to create that sense of urgency  before  a problem occurs. People will embrace change if they see the logic behind it.  If they feel they have control over its onset and evolution.  If they see it as nonthreatening and self-esteem enhancing.  And, if the change has the possibility of future benefits to them. Make sure that people are basing their decisions on facts -- fact-based information should be a company mantra.  Do not accept "I guess" or "I think so."

Here are three helpful leadership tips from author Neil Smith -- from his new book, co-authored with Patricia O'Connell,  How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things : People say they cannot find the time to do things, yet they always find the time to fix things when they break.  Companies need to create that sense of urgency  before  a problem occurs. People will embrace change if they see the logic behind it.  If they feel they have control over its onset and evolution.  If they see it as nonthreatening and self-esteem enhancing.  And, if the change has the possibility of future benefits to them. Make sure that people are basing their decisions on facts -- fact-based information should be a company mantra.  Do not accept "I guess" or "I think so."

In their book,  How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things , co-authors Neil Smith and Patricia O'Connell list  20 excuses commonly heard in companies  for reasons why new business transformation ideas are not considered. The authors recommend  eliminating these 20 excuses from your company's vocabulary : Our company is well run; there are no opportunities. We're inefficient, but my department is not the problem. The issue is support function and allocations, not my costs. Our problem is revenues, not how we do things. We have tried that before. We are already doing that. My boss/theCEO/legal will never agree to that. That won't save money or increase revenues. That would cost too much to implement. No one in the industry is doing that. We will lose customers if we do that. Anything that takes time away from serving my customers will hurt us. But we are unique. No one really understands what we do. I don't have time to think about that. We d...

Here are three helpful leadership tips from author Neil Smith -- from his book, co-authored with Patricia O'Connell, How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things : People say they cannot find the time to do things, yet they always find the time to fix things when they break.  Companies need to create that sense of urgency before a problem occurs . People will embrace change if they see the logic behind it .  If they feel they have control over its onset and evolution.  If they see it as nonthreatening and self-esteem enhancing.  And, if the change has the possibility of future benefits to them. Make sure that people are basing their decisions on facts -- fact-based information should be a company mantra.  Do not accept "I guess" or "I think so."