“We need to get everyone on the same page.” I’m fairly certain that you’ve uttered that phrase at least once. The most revealing question? How often do you make that statement in your company? Let’s probe deeper into what conditions prompt the need to feel that way. The prevailing conditions typically center on inconsistency in the execution of tasks, poorly defined expectations, conflicting agendas, indifference and general frustration – whose origin can be traced directly back to compromise at the leadership level.

When leaders say, “We need to get everyone on the same page,” it must first be acknowledged as a leadership issue – not a “they” issue. Leaders are the keepers of the “page” that contains the vision, mission and game plan. In these days of empowerment, inclusiveness and sense of ownership, the team may play a vital role in creating the page, but the ultimate accountability for executing what’s on that page rests squarely on the shoulders of leadership. All it takes are a few distractions to divert a leader’s attention away from the page for it to get lost in a pile of other seemingly important pages.

Here are some no-compromise strategies for you to keep everyone on your team on the same page:

• Build a new page: You’ve already forgotten the old page, and therefore, so did everyone on your team. Start with the big picture. What’s critical for your company to achieve in the next 12 months? Is your company up to its eyeballs in crisis? Then, what’s that one big hurdle it must overcome? Meeting and exceeding that singular objective is what that page is all about. If your company is cruising along just fine, then the objective for your page should be a mission to push it out of its comfort zone. Comfort zones are danger zones. Build and get on the same page.
• A page, not a book: What, why, how, the score. These are the components of a page everyone can understand. Your page should be the equivalent of sticking a pin on a map to define the destination. Describe the destination in terms of market position, revenues, critical numbers and specific outcomes that must exist to proclaim victory. You know where you are now, so what’s the plan to get to the destination? You must keep score via a rapid and thorough information-flow system. Once you build your page, you can create playbooks to map out the details. But it’s that first page that everyone needs to be on. Put your energy, focus and innovative thinking into building the page that everyone rallies around.
• Your no-compromise commitment: I guarantee that members of your team will say, “Yeah, we’ve heard this before and nothing changed.” Translation: It’s you who has a track record of lots of starts and few finishes. Your shiny new page is nothing without your team’s belief and trust in your commitment to see the initiative through to success. Yes, your team may trust you on smaller commitments, but when it comes to the big stuff, chances are they want to believe in you but fear disappointment because of your history of dropping the ball. You’re the only one who can build trust.
• The challenge of accountability: In many ways, getting on the same page is a form of a company culture shift. It requires organization, rules of engagement, assurance that procedures are followed, innovation to overcome the inevitable challenges, and self-management. Holding teams and individuals accountable to the agreed upon outcomes is the work of leadership. The process of holding oneself and others accountable is a virtual minefield of emotional and human-relations obstacles. Accountability is something leaders must walk up to and through. Too many leaders begin to hesitate as they walk up to address accountability issues. They fear confrontation because they lack the coaching skills to engage in accountability conversations. If this describes you, you are ready to find enlightenment through coaching.
• Let information flow: Nothing builds unity and rallies everyone onto the same page better than information flow. Something as simple as fast daily huddles to communicate where you are and what needs to be done today is a non-negotiable essential to keep the information flowing. The combined power of daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly information and strategy sessions – all focused on that same page – is what information flow is all about. Add leadership check-ins and hands-on interaction with team members and you have an information-flow system that supports same-page thinking and performance.

Getting and keeping everyone on the same page is what leadership is all about – and where leadership is most prone to inconsistency. And getting everyone on the same page is something that a leadership coach can help you do faster and more efficiently than you can on your own. I’m not selling coaching – I’m just stating fact.

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Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

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I’ve been writing the Monday Morning Wake Up (MMWU) for more than three years. My mission is to have every MMWU tap into the thinking and behavior at the core of a true no-compromise leader. While other leadership experts write about the “what to do,” I write, teach and coach about the thinking and behavior that must exist in order for each “what to do” to work. What’s the sense of implementing a new system, structure or approach if the leader’s wiring (his or her current thinking and behavior) is contaminated with procrastination, inconsistent accountability, lack of follow-through, inflated ego, time-management issues, poor communication and listening skills, and self-entitlement?

The survival rate of any change initiative is slim to none when the leader’s own thinking and behavior is getting in the way. This means that all change initiatives must begin with the leader’s commitment to change first. And in many situations, it’s the leader who created the issues the change initiative is supposed to fix. The byproduct is frustration and disillusionment. The good news is that all leaders possess the power to rise to the challenge and change their thinking and behavior.

I have never considered myself a “motivational” writer or speaker. Yet, after 40 years of doing this work, I’m proud that I have motivated many to become better leaders. So every Monday, I give you another bite-sized piece of what it takes to become a no-compromise leader. The question is: Are you using these to upgrade your leadership thinking and behavior?

Here are some no-compromise leadership strategies to getting the most out of every MMWU:

• See yourself: It’s clear from the blog comments that each MMWU resonates with leaders at a deeper level. The comment I see most reads something like, “Wow, this is just what I needed today.” Put your shields down and read every MMWU as though you’re looking in a mirror at your own thinking and behavior. Even if you see just a sliver of you, take it in and process it. We are leaders and we are not perfect, but we can get better. In fact, it’s our job to get better just as much as it’s our job to coach and mentor others to get better. If you’re not willing to change first, nothing will change.
• Collaborate: Share every MMWU with your leadership team. And while you’re at it, share it with your entire team. (If you want to put your whole staff on the MMWU e-mail list, let me know and we’ll make it happen.) Make each MMWU a topic for weekly leadership team meetings. Define the gap between the MMWU topic and what really exists in your company. The intent is to get the tough stuff on the table for discussion. Every MMWU is an opportunity to acknowledge that an issue exists and give it some attention to get better.
• Innovate: Because I write MMWUs on an array of leadership and business issues, they present an opportunity to innovate new strategies to lift your company. For example, I wrote a MMWU called: “Compete on value – not price.” Too many companies have shifted to an “our price is better” tactic rather then the more powerful and higher margin that comes from competing on value. That one MMWU presented an opportunity to innovate new strategies while creating fierce customer loyalty. It will be the innovators who win in today’s economy and in the future.
• Delegate: When a MMWU topic resonates with you, it presents an opportunity to delegate the topic to an individual or team to build a program around. The MMWU states the mission and jump-starts the process with specific strategies. More importantly, it allows you to manage what’s on your plate by delegating projects to others – and give others a chance to shine by seeing a project through to completion.
• Ownership: When you read a MMWU that addresses shortcomings in your personal leadership thinking and behavior, own it. Confront it. Deal with it. Don’t say, “Yeah, Neil was writing about me,” and move on with your day. Print out that MMWU to read and process again. Review specific action steps that you can take. Discuss the MMWU with a trusted advisor. Or, give me a call to see about some no-compromise leadership coaching. Take ownership. Take action.
• Authenticity: Great leaders know how to own their shortcomings. More importantly, they know how to ask for help from their team. All it takes is a simple statement like, “Hey, I know this topic is one I have challenges with; please let me know when that behavior surfaces.” Very often, working at getting better needs the ongoing support of those you lead.
• Excuses: Excuses never fix a problem – they simply justify why the problem occurred in the first place. The same goes for blaming others. If you find yourself dishing out excuses in volume, you’re not using my MMWUs. No compromise.

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Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

Pass this e-mail on to your business colleagues, managers and friends. They’ll appreciate it.

You run a good company. You built a good brand identity. Your sales are good. You have a good team and a good culture. So if everything is so good, why are you frustrated? Why do you feel like your company’s engine isn’t firing on all cylinders? Congratulations! You and your company have finally arrived at the pivotal point where good is no longer good enough. Good got you to where you are. Good doesn’t have the horsepower to take your company to the next level. Good is status quo.

Good simply means that you’re executing a lot of things well. Good is certainly something to be proud of, but competitors will methodically nip and chip away at your good until it becomes average. The gap between good and average is small. The gap between average and irrelevant is even smaller, and the decline can be rapid.

Chances are that “good isn’t good enough” is where your company is right now. You feel it and you don’t like it. It’s time for change. But are you truly ready to lift your company to the next level? Are you prepared to change in order to initiate company-wide change?

Here are some no-compromise strategies to begin your journey from good to exceptional:

• It’s really about you: It’s your company. You’re its leader. You led it to good, and you stopped because good felt pretty darn good. I always like to direct attention to that little voice in your head. That little voice tells you all the incredibly great things you should be doing as the leader; but it’s up to you to listen and engage. Getting to the next level means challenging yourself to do the tough stuff, to hold yourself accountable, to be committed to go the distance. Change initiatives fail when the leader expects everyone else to change first. That’s compromise.
• What’s your “hang time”? Getting to the next level means building new systems and getting them across the finish line. You must confront the reality of your hang time. If your track record is lots of starts and just a few finishes, maintaining your good is your real challenge. Getting to the next level isn’t going to happen until your hang time extends across the finish line.
• Collective thinking and behavior: Ah, now we’re getting to the core of what it takes to get to the next level. Yes, change begins with you, but lifting the collective thinking and behavior of a company to achieve next-level performance is the work of the no-compromise leader. The official term for such transitions is “culture shift.” FACT: Most culture shifts crash and burn in four to six months, and old thinking and behaviors come rushing back with a vengence. If good isn’t good enough, prepare to lead your company through a process of dynamic change. Anything less is a compromise; good may be all you’ll get.
• It’s the power of the destination: The energy to get to the next level radiates from the destination. You can’t inspire extraordinary performance and change when the destination is “I don’t know.” If you can’t articulate in extreme detail what life at the next level will look like, you’re already off to a bad start. Leaders, teams and companies achieve the extraordinary when the destination is so clear that it lives in your mind’s eye.
• What page? If there is any gripe I hear from leaders and followers alike it’s that “we’re not on the same page.” It’s massively frustrating for everyone when people and teams are on the wrong page or, even worse, reading from different playbooks. Get enough people on the same page and you can be good. Getting to the next level demands a level of thoroughness and attention to detail that you haven’t experienced yet. It’s all about building solid and rapid information-flow systems so everyone knows today’s plays and the score in real time. Anything less is a compromise.

Make the decision to accept good or choose to go to the next level. Stop talking about it. Commit to doing what your competition won’t. Push through the boundaries of ordinary to extraordinary. Lead your company through the four- to six-month danger zone where culture shifts crash and burn. Blow your customers away with experiences that inspire them to share with the world. For the no-compromise leader, good just isn’t good enough – ever.

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Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

Pass this e-mail on to your business colleagues, managers and friends. They’ll appreciate it.

Your long-range plan is clear. You build projections, budgets and cash-flow plans. You narrow your focus to 10 major initiatives to complete this year. You create organization charts to establish chain of command. You have job descriptions nailed down. Your information-flow systems are up and running. You’re screening job applicants better than ever. Employee training is thorough and weeds out the misfits. You have a system for damn near everything. Then why the heck are fires still erupting in your company? If you have all this stuff in place, why are things going off in the wrong direction? Where’s the predictability?

Creating predictability in a business is an essential quest. You have to do it. You have to find it – or at least get as close as you can to it. The problem is that things can be predictably good or bad. Whenever you say, “I knew that wouldn’t work,” what you’re really saying is the planning and preparation was flawed or inadequate, that the commitment, effort and execution were not equal to the task. In contrast, when things go predictably well, it means that planning, preparation, commitment, effort and execution were dialed in. FACT: Predictability, good or bad, is earned. Good predictability is hard work. Bad predictability usually means you hit the “easy button,” crossed your fingers and clicked your heels threes times.

Here are some no-compromise thoughts to earn predictability every day:

• Predictability is an outcome: From start to finish, the effort you put in determines the outcome. Predictability for the right outcomes has nothing to do with luck or quantum physics. Manifesting is about vision and being able to “see” the outcome in extreme detail. When the outcome is clear, the path to achieve it reveals itself. It may have some detours and unknowns, but perseverance and tenacity will help you connect the dots and find your way. Predictability is earned.
• Predictability as an individual: Predictability is the result of your personal leadership thinking and behavior. If your thinking and behavior has a propensity for shortcuts, your outcomes will be predictably questionable. Self-discipline to do the work, immerse yourself in the details, and go the distance, is the stuff that allows a leader to lead others to achieve extraordinary outcomes. Predictability begins with the leader. Predictability is earned.
• Predictability as a company: Geese naturally fly in formation, humans don’t. Humans are an array of complex self-thinkers. What motivates one doesn’t necessarily motivate another. Getting humans to fly in formation to achieve the desired outcome is the work of the no-compromise leader. And that work is all about the collective thinking and behavior of the company’s culture, or as I like to call it, the “attitude” of the company. If the company culture is contaminated with indifference, distrust and change resistors, the outcomes will be predictably flawed. Get the culture right, and outcomes will be predictably good. Predictability is earned.
• Predictability is a discipline: Get up early every day and go to the gym to work out, eat right, and guess what – you’ll lose weight and feel better. As a leader, if you commit to and practice the right leadership disciplines, you will earn predictably good outcomes. When a company commits to and practices success-based thinking and behavior, it can and will achieve astonishing outcomes that will have its competition in awe. Predictability is earned.

Predictability to achieve the right outcomes is all about consistency. Consistency is all about no-compromise leadership. It begins with you. Stop talking about it; start earning it.

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Please share your thoughts with me about today’s Monday Morning Wake-Up. Click above to comment.

Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

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The start of a new year is a great time to re-evaluate where you’ve been, and what you want your business to look like going forward. Reflecting on four years of writing Monday Morning Wake-Ups, I offer you the following no-compromise resolutions for 2012.

1. Stop tolerating the intolerable: Period. There’s funky stuff going on in your company that needs to go away – and it’s your job to get rid of it. The funky stuff has to do with behaviors, thinking, entitlements, double standards, cliques, missed opportunities, procrastination, missing or failing systems, inconsistent customer experiences, indifference and so on. You complain about it all the time, but you continue to tolerate it every day. Do you want to drag all that stuff into this beautiful new year? It’s time to go no compromise.
2. Leave nothing unsaid: You’re wrapping up a performance review. You discussed a whole bunch of stuff and hit on some important issues. But there’s one big elephant in the living room that’s been driving you crazy – and you end the review without mentioning it. You blew it. Leaving things unsaid enables inconsistent and unacceptable behaviors and performance. It’s the leader’s job to leave nothing unsaid because that’s the only way to coach an employee to reach his or her full potential. Do it with respect, integrity and commitment to achieving the right outcomes. It’s time to go no compromise.
3. Everyone is responsible: “They” isn’t on your payroll. The instant someone on your team says or thinks, “It’s not my job,” that employee has made the choice to be dispensable. It takes commitment, tenacity and courage to be indispensable. Build a culture based on “everyone is responsible,” and you’ll redefine your definition of efficiency, productivity, sense of urgency and teamwork. It’s time to go no compromise.
4. It’s only about the dream: Your team may respect and be loyal to you, but it’s the dream – your dream – that they hitched their wagon to. Over the years, I’ve been hired to figure out why a company became stagnant only to find that it’s the dream that went dark. It became all about the numbers, hitting goal and sticking to the budget. All that financial and performance reports do is measure progress to making the dream a reality. I don’t work hard for the money. I work hard for the dream I have for building an extraordinary coaching and training company. If I do that, the money will come. All the reports do is chart progress – and my effectiveness as a leader. It’s about the dream. You still remember how to dream extraordinary dreams, don’t you? Close your eyes. Without constraint, allow your wildest dreams of success for your company to manifest in your mind. Is the impossible really so impossible? It’s time to go no compromise.
5. The relentless pursuit: Are you leading your company on the relentless pursuit of average or mediocrity? I think not. But how much of how you lead and how your company performs minimize its potential? Average is easy. In business, average reeks of compromise. Reread resolution #1. It’s time to go no compromise.
6. Let it flow: How many of your employees know exactly what the immediate and most critical objectives are for your business? How many know what needs to be accomplished this month, this week — today? How many clearly understand your expectations for their individual performance? Would you describe your company’s “sense of urgency” as fast or slow? The common denominator for each of these questions is “information flow.” With it, there is focus, urgency, efficiency and productivity. Without it, there is frustration, fragmentation and missed opportunities. It’s time to go no compromise.
7. Get off the eggshells: Learn to identify the first “crunch.” The moment you hear the first crunch of eggshells, it signals that you are allowing your personal emotions, insecurities and fears to take you out of leadership mode. Leading is not about you – it’s about doing what’s best for the company and your employees. Keep off the eggshells. It’s time to go no compromise.
8. Your company’s attitude: Replacing the term “culture” with “attitude” simplifies the understanding of company behaviors. To understand culture, you must delve into the collective behavior of groups of people and organizations. To understand attitude, all you need to do is look at the faces and behaviors of those you work with. More importantly, don’t forget the face you see in the mirror. Engaging, inspiring and optimistic leaders lead engaging, inspiring and optimistic teams – and that’s the attitude your customers encounter. Grumpy leaders lead grumpy teams – and that’s the attitude your customers encounter. It’s that simple. It’s time to go no compromise.
9. Impatient for profit: Profit is proof that your business model works. Profit built on integrity, purpose and high values is proof that you are worthy of being a no-compromise leader. Profit shows that you’re paying attention to the company’s financial reality. A history of profitability shows that growth opportunities are consistently weighed against the potential risk. Generating profit in tough economic times shows that the company is capable of making and executing tough decisions. Lead your company to be patient for growth and impatient for profit. It’s time to go no compromise.
10. Compete on value: Competing on price is exhausting. Competing on extraordinary value is bold and empowering. It’s a commitment to be best in class, to stand out in a crowded marketplace. What’s the worst that could happen if you competed on delivering extraordinary value? What would happen if the next time you were tempted to lower a price to make a sale, you shifted to adding value instead? Would it be the end of the world if you walked away from a deal because you wouldn’t cave in on price? No-compromise leaders are not afraid to be bold. It’s time to go no compromise.

Wishing you and all our fans of Strategies and my Monday Morning Wake-Up, a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.

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Please share your thoughts with me about today’s Monday Morning Wake-Up. Click above to comment.

Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

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It’s our job as leaders to obsess. In fact, if we weren’t obsessing about something, we’d obsess that we have nothing to obsess over. If you think about it, obsessing is much like your shadow: It follows you everywhere. We obsess about all kinds of stuff, some of which is actually worthy, even critical, to obsess over. And then there’s all that low-level interference stuff you obsess over even though you’d be hard-pressed to explain why.

I am proud to admit that right now I’m obsessing over a few big projects I have on my plate: sales, cash flow, challenges coaching clients are having, ramping up new coaches, and a few other worthy issues. Yup, I always like to have my “things I’m obsessing over plate” nice and full. You’re probably thinking, “Hey, my obsessing plate is just like Neil’s.”

I’m also obsessed about writing the January 2nd Monday Morning Wake-Up that I need to write immediately after this one, whether the capacity of the 3-hole punch tray in the new printer we’re testing will meet our needs, that for the first time this year I do not have a flight booked to anywhere, whether we’ll have good weather next June for the MS Cape Cod Getaway Ride, will I like the new salt and pepper grinder set I just ordered, if Republicans and Democrats could agree on what today’s date is, and other truly worthless mind garbage. One more thing – I obsess over e-mail. I hate when it piles up. Drives me crazy. So I check it all the time. Now that I think about it, I think I check e-mail just to take a break from obsessing about other stuff.

Here are my no-compromise absolutes on obsessing:

• Essential obsessing: Leaders obsess because our decisions impact the lives of others. It’s our job to make the tough decisions to grow our companies. Those decisions may take away a family’s primary source of income or jeopardize our personal assets. Tough situations and decisions keep you awake at night. It’s the stress that comes with the job. Essential obsessing is best described as the process of critical thinking where issues are defined, options assessed, and the best decisions made.
• Non-essential obsessing: Hey, it’s OK to obsess about the little things – but not if you’re doing it to avoid obsessing about the essential stuff. And here’s a thought that will make your day: Think about what would happen if you didn’t waste time obsessing on the little stuff. Guess what? The only thing that would happen is your attitude and outlook would probably find its way to a state that is less stressful, lighter and – if you can handle it – more enjoyable. If anything, it will give you more time to do some high-quality obsessing on the essential stuff.
• Decisions and actions: Obsessing usually ends when the decision is made and action is taken. Even if the decision is the best from a list of tough options, the decision itself triggers your stress-relief valve. Then, you can obsess about taking action to execute your decision. Once again, action will trigger your stress-relief valve, leaving a temporary vacuum that once was filled with the stress of obsessing. Taking action is like working out. It gets your body moving and your heart pumping, making you more productive and moving you toward your objective.
• It’s a choice: I’m an “obsessor.” I know it – and so do the people in my inner circle. And I know I can control it. I can turn it off, if I want to. But doesn’t that sound like an excuse to keep on obsessing to my heart attack’s content? It sure does. The true answer is that I can control my obsessing nature if I give myself permission not to obsess. Give yourself permission to do stress-relieving things; it’s an amazing gift. I feel less stress just writing this.
• Driving them crazy: Hey, if we know our leadership obsessing is driving our employees crazy, let’s do them a favor and get it under control. You’re not going to get better results stressing everyone out. Leadership is about inspiring others to achieve their full potential so you can achieve yours.

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Please share your thoughts with me about today’s Monday Morning Wake-Up. Click above to comment.

Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

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Bam! In a gush of mental processing, you figured out the puzzle pieces and achieved a breakthrough of extraordinary, life-altering magnitude. Not only has your epiphany enlightened you, it has illuminated the path before you. You are in a different place where you see everything clearly. As a business trainer and coach, I witness leaders having epiphanies all the time. Heck, it’s my job to guide leaders to have those epiphanies.

The good news is that when leaders have epiphanies, they are massively empowering and ignite a sense of urgency to innovate something new, do things differently and just get the change train out of the station. The bad news about leaders having epiphanies is that people around them often don’t have a clue what’s going on or where the train is going. How could they, with the leader up front in the engine flailing his engineer hat around, shouting “woo hoo” and pushing the throttle to full speed ahead?

Here are some no-compromise strategies to allow your epiphanies to occur without driving everyone else crazy:

• Beam me back, Scotty: Epiphanies instantly transport leaders to a different place while leaving your team in the dust. Until you share your epiphany Kool-Aid with your team, they will perceive you and your epiphany as something from outer space. Until you invest the time to thoroughly download the why and wherefore of your epiphany to your team, your enlightenment or idea will frustrate those you lead instead of inspiring them.
• Epiphanies signal change: Not everyone is comfortable riding the change train. Some even refuse to get onboard. That’s why it’s essential that you balance your newfound enlightenment with determination and heavy doses of information. If your epiphany came with a user’s guide, what would that look like? If your epiphany caused a shift in your leadership style or focus, it would sure help your employees figure out the new you if they could read about the updated features and how to use them. The same goes for any new system, business model or innovation.
• Lead through the epiphany: Don’t push – lead. Epiphanies can be inspiring. In our recent Beyond Being the Boss seminar, I did a segment on how to take a sabbatical for a month or so. Most initially balked at the idea saying, “There’s no way I can take that much time off.” After further exploration, bam! The epiphanies went off like popcorn popping. Two leaders went back to their companies and announced their sabbaticals, focusing on the unique opportunity it presented to their team leaders and staff to prove themselves.
• It’s a seed – not a tree: When epiphanies occur, they’re in a fairly raw form. You may see the destination or outcome quite clearly, but the process or plan to get there only exists in the abstract. Epiphanies need time to bake, to gain texture and definition. Think of an epiphany as only giving you the first 15% of the solution. New thinking and behavior take time to lock in. Ideas or systems need to be tested. Sense of urgency is fine, but making a mad dash across a potential minefield can get you and those who believe in you blown up.
• Epiphany or brain fart: This is a tricky one to explain. Some epiphanies can be acts of desperation. I’ve seen leaders make some pretty bad decisions that only made matters worse. An epiphany can be a great idea but impractical to initiate at the time. And there are epiphanies that are just brain farts that you hope nobody notices. You feel it when a true epiphany occurs. An epiphany lights you up and energizes you. Even then, you need to see if the epiphany has staying power.

So, let your epiphanies materialize. Just manage them so they don’t get out of control.

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Please share your thoughts with me about today’s Monday Morning Wake-Up. Click above to comment.

Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

Pass this e-mail on to your business colleagues, managers and friends. They’ll appreciate it.

As a consultant and business coach, I often wish I could have my clients lie on a couch while I sit in a big leather chair asking deep questions and taking notes. I’m not a psychologist nor do I want to be one. But just as a psychologist’s job is to help patients seek understanding and clarity, my job is to help leaders navigate the unpredictable waters of leadership, business, finance and human dynamics.

In many ways, it’s the leader’s job to obsess over darn near everything. It’s the leader’s job to constantly move the company forward. If the company is stuck or in the fiery pits of hell, it’s the leader’s job to unstick it and get the company on the path to daylight. When the company hits goal or has any sort of a big win, it’s only a short respite to celebrate, and then it’s back to the game of business.

Current reality can never be good enough when you’re a leader. A problem needs to be solved because another problem is on the way. Today’s innovation will become tomorrow’s commodity. A win needs to be followed by another win. The relentless pace of change recognizes current reality as imperfect. That makes current reality every leader’s nemesis. It’s pretty exhausting when you think about it.

Here are some no-compromise strategies to help you deal with the reality of current reality:

• Imperfect but good: When your job is to obsess over everything, it’s easy to see all the things that are wrong and need fixing. It’s easy to get stuck in the “nothing is good enough” mode. Well, guess what? Everything isn’t wrong, broken or not working. You and your business had to do a whole lot of things right to get where you are – even if where you are isn’t such a fun place right now. So, before you beat yourself and your company up for what you don’t like, take time to celebrate and appreciate all that’s good and wonderful about your company. You deserve it. Your team deserves it. Lighten up for bit – then get back in the game.
• Friend not foe: One of my current realities is that I cannot consistently ride my favorite 30-mile bike route at a speed of more than 17 miles-per-hour. There are a fair number of hills and I’m just not a fast hill climber. But I keep trying and I’m gaining. My current reality is simply a benchmark – something to improve upon. I’m 61 years old, and I’m intent on improving my personal best time. Shift that thinking to business and leadership; current reality will start working to your advantage.
• Own don’t blame: Don’t like your company’s current reality? Guess what, you lead it there. When you engage in the blame, justify, and defend game, your current reality is going to become more imperfect, stressful and intolerable. More things will go wrong and spiral out of control. The first step to improve current reality is for the leader who led it there to own it. And I mean own it all.
• Encouragement not discouragement: When you allow your current reality to wear you down and get the best of you, it will have a discouraging effect on not only you, but on your entire team. Employees can and will pick up on your funk and become discouraged right along with you. If you position current reality as a benchmark or state to improve upon, you can tap into its motivational aspects, just as I do with my bike riding. Try: “Let’s get better; let’s be the best” to lift and improve team performance.
• Action not inaction: You change your current reality by taking positive action. Inaction will just give you more of what you don’t want. So, look for the possibilities that exist out there. Or, you can continue to look down at current reality and lead your company right over the cliff you would have seen if you were paying attention.

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Please share your thoughts with me about today’s Monday Morning Wake-Up. Click above to comment.

Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

Pass this e-mail on to your business colleagues, managers and friends. They’ll appreciate it.

Imagine a business law that stated, “If you start a company, it must endure for generations.” As an entrepreneur myself, I must admit that when starting a company, even Strategies, the last thing on my mind was designing it to endure for generations. The sense of urgency is to get the doors open, start generating cash and push through the crazy, exciting and scary start-up phase. When you bet everything you have on the vision of your new company, your attention is on the here and now – not on what your company should look like long after you’re gone. But what if it was mandatory that you build a company to endure for generations? How would that change your thinking?

Entrepreneurial businesses are born with a fatal flaw. They are the manifestation of their founders. As such, the separation between the founder and the company is blurred. Founder and company are one and the same. However, under the right conditions and a little bit of luck, the company can grow beyond the emotional bonds of its founder. The fatal flaw is that most start-up companies not only grow and mature with their founders – they age and die with their founders.

Is your company designed to endure for generations? Probably not. Few entrepreneurs think that far ahead. But if a law existed that required you to think far enough ahead to design your company to endure for generations, what would you do differently now?

Here are some no-compromise strategies to shift your thinking so that your company can endure for generations:

• Your company is not on the same lifeline as you: You can retire one day and kick back. Your company cannot retire. Your priorities often change as you age; personal time becomes more important and precious. A company’s priorities also change but in a different way. A company needs to adapt, evolve and reinvent itself to remain competitive. A company doesn’t want to stop growing. It wants to get bigger, and bigger means more complexity. When your company is stuck on your lifeline, it’s going to die with you. Allow your company to live its life and evolve so that you can live yours.
• Control freaks and egos: Apple’s Steve Jobs was a control freak and had a massively brutal ego that channeled this obsession for perfection at developing innovative, amazing products. But he was also obsessed with growing an enduring company that would live on and do great things after he was gone. Good or bad, control freak and ego are part of the entrepreneurial spirit. When channeled in the right direction, these traits can propel a company to greatness. Likewise, these traits can sap the energy out of a company and create a toxic and demoralized culture. A company cannot endure for generations if the leader can’t let go of some of the controls and keep his or her ego in check.
• You’re an employee too: You may be the ultimate decision maker, but you’re also an employee of the company. Your job is to serve the company. As stockholder, your reward is profit and equity growth. By keeping an “employee” perspective, you maintain that necessary degree of separation between you and “the company.” It keeps entitlement behavior under control. For example, it keeps you from using the company checkbook as your personal checkbook. This is a subtle but crucial mode of thinking that will help build a company capable of enduring for generations. It’s difficult to gain respect as leader when you make it obvious that you play by different rules.
• Excel and supplement: If you’re a “big picture” thinker and stink at managing the details, you’re not alone. If you love doing the “work” of the business and find the business stuff and numbers boring or too complicated, you’re not alone. If you hate confrontation and holding others accountable, you’re not alone. Few leaders are the complete package. In fact, those who do seem to be a complete package, in most cases, aren’t. They simply push hard in their areas of strength and supplement with the right talent in areas where they are weak. You can’t build an enduring company by ignoring aspects of your company that don’t interest you or that are too far outside of your natural strengths.
• Ban mediocrity: Accepting mediocrity in your performance or anywhere in your company is pure compromise. I view mediocrity as an affliction that leaders enable. Leaders set the standard, pace and culture of a company. If mediocrity is tolerated, it spreads like wildfire. OK is not good enough. Average is getting by. Great companies that outlive their founders have excellence as a core value.

It takes time to wrap your head around the concept of building an enduring company. The concept alone forces you to change your thinking and perspective as an entrepreneur and founder. It makes you a better leader.

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Please share your thoughts with me about today’s Monday Morning Wake-Up. Click above to comment.

Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

Pass this e-mail on to your business colleagues, managers and friends. They’ll appreciate it.

The “New Normal” is how I describe the state of doing business today. Think of it as a tidal wave of change that is relentless and moving at high speed. The pace is so fast that it has rendered many tried-and-true leadership approaches and systems grossly underpowered or totally ineffective. To survive and thrive in a change-on-steroids economy, leaders need to rethink everything quickly or drown in the wake of change. I’m not being overly dramatic – just stating what every leader knows to be true.

It’s hard for a company to be fast, responsive and innovative when its organizational structure is complicated and, in many ways, designed to be territorial. This is exactly what happens when org charts are built around titles and functions. In the New Normal, organizational structures must be streamlined, simplified and focused on what’s truly important: the outcomes.

Consider the simplicity and focused potential of an org chart built around the Four Business Outcomes: productivity, profitability, staff retention and customer loyalty. I first presented the Four Business Outcomes in my book No-Compromise Leadership. I described them as a business guidance system for leadership and dynamic growth. Each outcome is driven by what I call The BIG Eight Drivers.

The New Normal org chart gives you four direct reports, each responsible for driving one of the outcomes. It’s uncluttered. It allows you to interact directly with the outcomes that need to occur rather than titles and functions. It also allows the outcomes to interact with each other. If productivity needs more staff, profitability budgets the funds, and staff retention recruits and prepares the skills to serve the customer loyalty outcome. Get the Four Business Outcomes right and you have a company that will survive and thrive in the New Normal.

The New Normal is a catalyst for change and extraordinary opportunity. Use it to your advantage to break free of the constraints of the approaches, tactics and systems of the Old Normal. Use the New Normal to challenge your team to be the best, to flip their mental switches to growing a company that provides opportunity, security and can endure for generations. That’s what leadership and business is all about in the New Normal. It all begins with leadership and an organizational structure that focuses on what’s important: the Four Business Outcomes.

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Please share your thoughts with me about today’s Monday Morning Wake-Up. Click above to comment.

Neil Ducoff, Founder & CEO of Strategies and author of No-Compromise Leadership

Pass this e-mail on to your business colleagues, managers and friends. They’ll appreciate it.