1) Organizations need to communicate to everyone that accountability and commitment are important. This provides an opportunity to analyze your communication system.
2) Align every job description to your company’s strategy and goals for the coming year. Ask everyone to commit to a shared vision of results. Annual strategic planning will keep you on track with this step.
3) Make accountabilities clear for everyone by using the benchmark for their job to start a discussion about how their individual contributions matter. Incorporate this strategy into your hiring system.
4) Have job-related professional development planning in place for new employees. This will help them reach their full potential consistently and more quickly. 

5) Build accountability into your company culture using “what and by when” goal and task planning. Project management can be very sophisticated, but the bottom line is “who, what, and by when?”  Having simple project management tools in place will work wonders for this step.
6) Offer ways for employees to communicate obstacles and request the help or resources they need to achieve their goals. When you listen to them, recognize that what you’re listening to is someone who is committed to producing results.
7) Involve employees in an ongoing dialogue about how they can identify process improvements or otherwise increase the quality of their work and the team’s productivity. A great way to do this is through brainstorming sessions. These can be fun and productive!
8) Use small “course corrections” on a monthly or as-needed basis to guide employees toward behaviors and practices that are effective for meeting goals. Don’t wait for the annual performance review. You wouldn’t wait until arrival at a destination to notice a wrong turn along the way, would you? Always build in check points on every project to help eliminate processes and components from falling through the cracks.
9) “Catch” people doing something right: Give frequent, honest and positive feedback. As a general rule of thumb, a ratio of five positive interactions to one critical interaction will help managers build an open communication channel with direct reports. A true performance system involves constant feedback.
10) Identify ways to recognize and acknowledge employees company-wide when their actions exemplify an “above and beyond” commitment to company objectives. Success breeds success!

If you’re serious about achieving spectacular results next year, get everyone involved. Call 404.320.7834 or 1.800.906.7834 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for help benchmarking jobs, onboarding new employees and creating development plans for everyone on the team.

It is the desire of those who teach and hold doctorates to become tenured in the educational facility of their choosing. Typically, in Corporate America, The CEO has climbed the ladder of success within an organization. Maybe this individual started in the mailroom, or was hired right out of college. In some cases, the person was hired through a recommendation by another executive either inside or outside the company or a Board member. If the person making the recommendation is trusted, perhaps the one being recommended is a good fit. Time will tell.

Time may indeed tell, but by the time a mistake is discovered, you may be out of time and it will be too late. Mulling over some recent examples of succession nightmares, may help with your succession planning. Bernard Ebbers became a self-made millionaire by investing in motels. Soon he discovered LDDC (Long Distance Discount Company). He invested in this company. While operating WorldCom, it became one of the largest companies in America. Mr. Ebbers was the driving force growing the company through no less than 75 acquisitions. He was also over-zealous in his attempt to have WorldCom as the number one stock on Wall Street. He may have had the talent for making deals, but not so much for managing them into a cohesive, well-functioning and profitable company. WorldCom could no longer bring in the revenues it needed, there were ethical questions, and soon thereafter, WorldCom was no more. While Mr. Ebbers was the founder, there weas no one in place who could have succeeded him. Bear Steams, an 85 year-old, well-respected corporation suffered a similar fate.  

Volumes have been written on leadership. Some sources discuss whether leaders are born or made, some are written about how to become leaders, and still other sources write about what constitutes good leadership. Good leadership is required in all aspects of our lives, business, community and family. Just as everyone has a different communication and behavioral style, we also have different leadership styles. In fact, while conducting research for this article I found several styles. There were the four basic styles that everyone learns about in school, autocratic, laissez-faire, bureaucratic and democratic. In addition to these, I found information on 18 other leadership styles! No wonder leadership is often thought of as an enigma. Just as it is important to understand your behavioral and communication style, it is important to understand your leadership style. Amazingly, enough, these styles are the same. Using the DISC assessment as a guideline, these styles would translate like this:

Strategic Planning may be an enigma to some, a pain to others, and others may view it as a necessary evil. Still others believe that there is only one-way to do strategic planning and become paralyzed seeking out that silver bullet. It may help to understand that strategic planning is a process that involves the synthesis of creativity, imagination, intuition, and of course, planning. Planning incorporates the process of analysis. Creativity and imagination never follow just one path. Neither does strategic planning. Strategic planning plays one role. However, strategic thinking is quite different.