Have you ever tried to cut with an unsharpened blade on your saw?  What happened? It took more time! It took more effort! It took more energy! It was frustrating! It was not pretty looking! Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my axe.”  [...]

Getting and keeping everyone on the same page is a critical success factor for leaders.  It is also one of the hardest things to accomplish due to the human meaning-making.  Each of us sees, hears, and feels things differently.  We all develop different sets of filters that we use to interpret what we read, see, [...]

In her 1995 national best-selling book, Jesus CEO, Laurie Beth Jones uses the story of Jesus Christ as a metaphor for visionary leadership.  Her book is divided into three sections: Strength of Self-Mastery Strength of Action Strength of Relationships I read this book a long time ago.  Today, I got an email from one of [...]

I was watching the Science Channel show Build it Bigger recently.  The show was about the process of designing and building a VERY large and unique hotel and entertainment complex in the Middle East.  It was amazing to watch the show at many levels.  What came out of it for me were the following lessons: [...]

I keep telling my team that they we need to be more proactive all the time.  On our website (www.remotedbaexperts.com) we talk a lot about proactive monitoring, proactive problem prevention, etc. Proactivity has several meanings: Having an orientation to the future, anticipating problems and taking affirmative steps to deal positively with them rather than reacting [...]

The purpose of this post is to stress the importance of keeping the results we seek in mind all the time.  When you keep results in mind, you are better able to align your time and effort to accomplish the results you desire.  Being highly conscious of the results enables you to better decide what [...]

The following post is intended to help the reader understand the power of taking full responsibility for problems or lackluster results of the groups and organizations they lead.  By doing so, they will identify what really went wrong and better develop solutions and take actions that effectively resolve the situation permanently. In his book Good [...]

In an earlier post, I introduced six Key Value Factors that I consider to be drivers of high value perception: Timeliness Efficiency Effectiveness Responsiveness Quality Integrity In this post, I will expand upon the final factor:  Integrity.  I will do so by defining what it means and discussing what it entails.  While the focus of [...]

In an earlier post, I introduced six Key Value Factors that I consider to be drivers of high value perception: Timeliness Efficiency Effectiveness Responsiveness Quality Integrity In this post, I will expand upon the fifth factor:  Quality.  I will do so by defining what it means and discussing what it entails.  While the focus of [...]

In an earlier post, I introduced six Key Value Factors that I consider to be drivers of high value perception: Timeliness Efficiency Effectiveness Responsiveness Quality Integrity In this post, I will expand upon the fourth factor:  Responsiveness.  I will do so by defining what it means and discussing what it entails.  While the focus of [...]