Lessons on Learning

School-EnglandIn a recent article in The Economist, my favorite magazine (minus any that report on realty TV ;-)., has a great article entitled “A very British business: Some lessons from the success of Britain’s elite private schools.” The article notes three areas where business could learn a lesson from (essentially) K-12 schools in Britian:

  1. “The first is that ‘tradition’ and ‘innovation’ need not be mutually exclusive.”  In short, you can be in a business and still have enough vision to innovate/re-envision the business.
  2. “Performance measurement isn’t something performers are scared of. “I had a call today with a former long-term client.  His son is looking at attending a boot camp.  I shared to ask for scores and placement rates at program completion.
  3. “…insiders can make the best revolutionaries.” In the article, it shares that effective transformers can come from inside a business.  I agree.

 

 

standardApril 30Tom SalonekHappy Employees

Small Business State of the State

Small-BizThe state of small business, in my opinion, is pretty fascinating.  Here are some stats from a Business Insider infographic:

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  • The U.S. government defines small business as less than 500 employees and 50% of workers work for small businesses
  • 65% of new jobs since ’95 are in small businesses
  • Only 7 out of 10 new employers last two years, half last five years, a third make it 10 years, and only one out of four makes it 15 years
standardApril 28Tom SalonekSmall Business

The Four Fundamentals for Success in Life

The-Number-4Dan Sullivan, the person behind Strategic Coach, many years ago stated the four fundamentals for success in life:

  1. Show up on time
  2. Do what you say
  3. Finish what you start
  4. Say please and thank you

He goes on to say, and I agree, that while many other pieces are required for success, continually skip one of the above and success in life will be hard.

 

standardApril 23Tom SalonekLeadership

Being a Leader: Telling Time or Clock Building?

Clock-SmallIn Built to Last, Jim Collins says “…being a charismatic visionary leader is ‘time telling’; building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any single leader…. is ‘clock building.’”

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Clock building leaders:

  • Focus on organizational design
  • Stay out of day-to-day details
  • Focus on the long term vision
  • Reinforce values
  • Builds a team of leaders
standardApril 16Tom SalonekLeadership