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Author Archives: David Shedd
Minimize Negativity
Negativity has been with mankind forever. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, we are all descendants of humans who scanned the horizon for negative (and dangerous) factors, acted to avoid these negative factors, survived, and reproduced. In today’s world, we … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Happiness, Negativity, Positivity, Winning Teamwork
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Keep Eyes on the Business
100 years ago, Henry Ford said: “The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all but goes on making his own business better all the time.” To be successful leaders, we need to be that … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Perform / Execution
Tagged Do the Right Thing, Focus
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6 Simple Expressions of a Good Leader
To be a good leader, we need to master and put into practice the basics. The basics of good leadership start and end with how we communicate and interact with our teams and our customers. I offer my list of … Continue reading
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
In his book, Hidden Potential, Adam Grant offers insight into how we can realize our hidden potential and achieve greater things. This advice is relevant to us, as individuals, and as leaders of teams and companies. To give a flavor … Continue reading
What’s Our Zero to Sixty?
Late one afternoon, a major plumbing leak sprang up in a building we were helping to build. Our field team sprang into immediate action, mobilized a large crew of workers, worked overtime, and repaired the damage caused by the water … Continue reading
Complexity and Problem Solving
I recently listened to a course titled Understanding Complexity. A key takeaway from the course is that the tools we use for regular problem solving do not fully work with complex problems. In regular problem solving, we determine the root … Continue reading
Build a Great (and Good) Company
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Lord Acton This well-known quote from the 1800’s rings true. As countless observers continue to remark, great historical leaders (in business, politics, and the … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Business Leadership, Ethical Leadership, Good to Great
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Creeping Complexity
Anthropologist Joseph Tainter writes, “Complexity creeps up on you.” Today, complexity has been creeping up and overwhelming us. Within our companies and in our personal lives, we need to fight hard against this complexity to enable us to realize our … Continue reading
Upward Communication Makes Us All Better
In a previous blog, Communicate Upward, I discussed the need for upward communication and how to communicate upward. In this blog, I discuss upward communication and how it improves our employees’ understanding and capabilities. Upward Communication Good upward communication needs … Continue reading
Reject Equality… Embrace Fairness
In a previous blog, I wrote about Ideological Necrophilia, the continued love of ideas that have been tried repeatedly and proved (again and again) not to work. One failed idea that I wrote about is that we need to treat … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Equality, Ethical Leadership, Fairness
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Team Building
Winning teamwork is fundamental to the success of any organization. Winning teamwork requires trust, openness, communication, and respect among the members of the team. The purpose of a team building event is to deepen the bonds within the team and … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Team Building, Teamwork, Winning Teamwork
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The Team is More Important than the Individual
At the height of the Great Recession, the CEO was focusing the company on production efficiencies to reduce costs. One regional president, by contrast, was driving forward to grow sales. This president’s region outperformed all the other regions. But the … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Leadership, Teamwork, Winning Teamwork
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Ideological Necrophilia
“Ideological necrophilia – a love of ideas that have been tried and proved not to work.” Moises Naim (Venezuelan writer and journalist) In the political world, we see ideological necrophilia in a continued love of Marxism and communism by the … Continue reading
Be Kind
One of our team asked their supervisor (a valued senior manager in our company) whether the supervisor had read an E-Mail that was sent. In front of a group of ten people, the supervisor responded: “I have seen that you … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Courtesy, Kindness, Leadership
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Skin in the Game
In a previous job, I had around 100 salespeople who reported either directly or indirectly to me. As a group, they were strong in sales. But they lagged in paperwork, especially sales reporting and expense reports, and in doing any … Continue reading
6 Simple Expressions of a Good Leader
To be a good leader, we need to master and put into practice the basics. The basics of good leadership start and end with how we communicate and interact with our teams and our customers. I offer my list of … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Team / People
Tagged Leadership Success, Simple Expressions
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The Challenge of Being Ethical
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Groucho Marx “There’s one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says, ‘Yes’, you know … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Do the Right Thing, Ethical Leadership, Ethics
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Rough Seas Ahead?
Economists, politicians, and many business leaders are predicting a recession in 2023 as the Federal Reserve continues to tighten to lower inflation and inflationary expectations. Alas, I have no insight on whether an economic downturn will come to pass. I … Continue reading
Evolution and Change in Business
Looking at our businesses within the context of evolution can give us actionable insights to help move our businesses forward. Despite what we may have read or heard; evolution is not about a dog-eat-dog world where only the strongest individuals … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution
Tagged Change, Change Management, Evolution
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Let’s Be Scientific
As leaders, we are required to constantly evaluate evidence and make decisions. In doing so, we often succumb to “winging it” and making decisions on the fly, trusting our gut. While this might work for some decisions, it does not … Continue reading
David M. Shedd - Move Your Company Forward 