Author Archives: Bill Flynn

Can you state it clearly in one sentence? Many of these differ but all have one thing in common – A clear and compelling statement that describes what it means to win for each organization. It takes effort to distill your vision into one clear and motivating message. Once you do, it helps to alignContinue reading “What does “success” look like for your company?”

“Nine times out of ten, any new customers that are acquired will do nothing to increase profits.” 80/20 Manager, Richard Koch These imbalanced outcomes are everywhere in terms of cities’ populations, companionship, clothes worn and food consumed. They are vividly evident in business. Per the first revelation above, if 90% of your profits come fromContinue reading “Business is driven by extremes, not averages”

“When you first start to study a field, it seems like you have to memorize a zillion things. You don’t. What you need is to identify the core principles – generally three to twelve of them – that govern the field. The million things you thought you had to memorize are simply various combinations ofContinue reading “Do you know what truly matters to your team and your core customers?”

We have been told that feedback is essential to give to your team. We have been told that they want it, especially millennials. Are these statements true? Conventional wisdom says “Yes!” Neuroscience says “No!”. Marcus Buckingham of ADP Research Institute says that what people really want is attention. They do want to get better butContinue reading “Does your team really want or need feedback?”

Here is the list: As you can see, the odds are stacked against a truly helpful performance assessment for the recipient. There is much more detail in this article Other ways to help someone improve their behavior and performance is to ask their peers, superiors, and other stakeholders to provide useful information through surveys such asContinue reading “Why I am not a fan of some 360s and similar performance rating methods”

According to the Gallup study, who decides the optimal schedule of being in the office and how often relative to the effectiveness of the team and satisfaction of the team members is instructive. What I thought was interesting is that the optimal hybrid work model is impacted primarily by the interdependency of team members for collaboration and production. This articleContinue reading “Struggling with hybrid work?  Five findings to help”

These days with WFH being more prevalent, employee engagement remaining low and the continual reminder of the Great Resignation, it is hard to get a read on how your team is doing. The following are a set of questions with True/False answers to ask your team to help you see what is going in inContinue reading “Who is looking for a new job?”

I like the ideas and questions to ask your team members that are included in this HBR article. I think the name is a bit misleading (at least it was to me) but, I believe, it does have some useful information. The gist of the article is to be curious and open so you are askingContinue reading “Help your employees reflect on past accomplishments”

Strategy is about thinking. Planning is about doing. We are in the season of thinking about the future. This article from Graham Kenny hits on several important topics to help you differentiate yourself from your competitors. Mr. Kenny offers more detail in his HBR article – Strategic Planning should be a Strategic Exercise. IMPORTANT – IContinue reading “Strategic Planning – Taking advantage of market white space”

Alan Mulally is the leader I speak about the most – in my book and with clients. He turned around two iconic companies during existential economic crises that were seemingly tailor-made to destroy each – Boeing during 9/11 and Ford during the 2008 Recession. This is a feat few others, if any, can match. What I alsoContinue reading “Lead by Design: Interview with Alan Mulally”