Predictable Success®

We all do what we do because of deep-seated needs.

Most founder-owners, for example, start ventures because of a need for freedom and autonomy. Most leaders arrive in leadership positions driven by a need to make a difference.

Some needs sour, however, taking the edge off otherwise great leaders and dragging them down to the level of the merely mediocre.

Here are the three most common good-needs-gone-bad that I see otherwise excellent leaders succumb to:

1. The need to be liked
2. The need to be the smartest person in the room (or Zoom)
3. The need to be elsewhere

What about you? Which of the three most common good-needs-gone-bad do you succumb to?

Amazingly, there's just one week left before we lurch into the fourth quarter of the year.

'Q4' is a weird quarter - often it’s a blur of activity as everyone lurches toward the finish line, feverishly trying to complete their goals, reach their targets.

This has two unintended consequences:

1. Perversely, that frenzied focus on 'hitting the metrics' almost always means that the entire organization's focus moves almost exclusively to the short term, and other, more important but less urgent medium and long-term goals are either ignored. or at best given minimal attention.

2. In the blur of activity in Q4, it's easy to set aside (and never pick up again) commitments and promises you made to colleagues in Q3 (or earlier).

No matter how trivial some of those commitments may be, losing sight of them in a time-crush to 'hit the numbers' sends a subliminal message to others that your leadership is transactional and mercenary, whether you mean it to or not.

As a leader, you can’t afford for either of these to happen.

So here’s how to lead in Q4 in a way that ensures you hit your metrics and keep appropriate focus on the medium- and long-term while maintaining your integrity as a leader:

How to Lead in Q4 A version of this article first appeared in Inc.com Listen to Les McKeown read this blog post: Amazingly, there's just one week left before we lurch into the fourth quarter of the year.  'Q4' is a weird quarter - often  it’s a blur of activity as everyone lurches toward the finish line, feveris...

Does your project list look like an airline departure board during a hurricane… 'Delayed', 'Delayed', 'Delayed..’?
Are your managers constantly committing to stuff that just doesn’t get finished?

Here’s the single sentence – with just three words – that will clear that departure board and Get Stuff Done:

The 3-Word Sentence That Gets Stuff Done |image1|Does your project list look like an airline departure board during a snowstorm...'Delayed', 'Delayed', Delayed..'? Are your managers constantly committing to stuff that just doesn't get finished? Here's the single sentence - with just three words - that will clear that departure board and Ge...