As our third-grade teacher might know very well, we all have a limit to our attention span. We naturally get bored with a task over time and hence, need a break.

The awful boss that is often spoken of who steals his employees ideas, robs them of recognition for accomplishments and hard work, and passes the blame for failure is the poster child of bad management.  I support a view point that is often brushed off by colleagues as too radical but in reality it is quite simple to believe, follow and implement.

Leading a business is a complex and challenging task to allocate the right resources to the best opportunities every day. Being sure to allocate enough funds to the marketing budget and then maximize the practical use of each dollar. During difficult times it can be tempting to slash the marketing budget since the payoff isn’t always visible today. The reality every great leader knows is the future of your business depends on how effective the organization builds the brand, generate leads, and converts the leads to sales.

I spoke with a friend today who is exploring an entrepreneurial pursuit.  As we discussed the business plan concept I eventually couldn’t help myself but to start drilling in on the economics.   So I asked the important question of how many units needed to be sold to replace this person’s current salary?   This is a useful question to determine if the business model is initially viable.  If you need to sell 10,000 units and only have the capacity to produce 500 per month you immediately can find the curbs in the business. 

Do you tell your team you want to be “World Class”?  If you do, let me try to persuade your thinking and change your goal.   To me, World Class means you are have achieved a standard of quality attained by many other organizations making it unexceptional. Being 1, 2, or 3 in the world is really what matters and is exceptional.   For example, lots of athletes are World Class and make it to the Olympics.   Only the ones that bring home a medal make it in the Nike commercial.   Is the goal to have excellence above everyone else or achieve a level of excellence that is expected at a minimum to enter the world stage? 

Communicating the company’s strategy to the organization is a difficult thing to do.  Everyone has to buy into the goal of where the company is headed and being able to clearly articulate the strategy is key.  Once everyone is on board and the entire team is rowing in the same direction the results that can be produced are amazing.  The December 2011 issue of the Harvard Business Review illustrated a great example of how to communicate the strategy and ultimately the Why of the organization.  The article explains how Four Seasons has been able to achieve great success by aligning the daily activities of its employees to the strategy of the organization.