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

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

Microsoft Turns 40

Microsoft-LogoMicrosoft turned 40 last week.

In a letter to employees, Bill Gates said, “I believe computing will evolve faster in the next 10 years than it ever has before”

Wow… quite a statement about what’s coming ahead from the founder of a firm with one of the largest market caps in the world on par with Google and ExxonMobile.

standardApril 14Tom SalonekIT