Last week I talked about successful collaboration. This week I’d like to share another idea about this important topic. When you are engaged in any effort that demands collaboration, you must treat your partner’s issues as paramount and do everything you can to resolve friction and help your partner succeed. You cannot build a healthy

When I review my proudest achievements both in business and in the nonprofit sector, collaboration with partners was almost always part of the success. A lot of executives talk about collaboration, but are just paying lip service to the concept. If you want to grow an organization and build significant value, you must develop the ability to

Decisions create momentum. Making good decisions, timed right, is a tough challenge for any manager. You have to cultivate the habit of making timely decisions — conduct your due diligence and then trust your instincts. Try this mind game: You’ve been asked a tough question, then ordered to stand on top of a cliff while

A strong leader delegates decision-making authority for a project to the lowest practicable level within an organization.  This is the value of hierarchy and decentralized decision-making. You set the values and priorities at the top, then push the implementation to individuals deep within the organization, where it becomes a competitive advantage. In an accountable culture,

It’s human nature to focus on what we do well and then to ignore or postpone working on what does not come as naturally.  A good manager must fight that instinct, understand what key leadership or management attributes they may lack, and either develop those skills or hire them onto the team. Every staff member