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“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy Thomas didn’t like change. Shortly after getting married, his wife began to turn his bachelor pad into something more suitable for a family. Thomas would come home to find a painting moved from one wall to another, or a […]

“The reality is that the Lord never calls the qualified; He qualifies the called.” - Henry Blackaby In order to be a great leader, do you have a be the “lone wolf” type, or have all the answers? Or, do you have to be an extrovert, or a Type-A personality? Do you have to be […]

“Leadership is influence.” – John Maxwell The “leadership is influence” quote above illustrates a very important principle. If we have influence in at least one person’s life, then by definition that makes us a leader. Many people don’t think of themselves as leaders, even those who sometimes find themselves in official leadership positions. You may […]

“The gent who wakes up and finds himself a success hasn't been asleep.” – Wilson Mizner When we see companies that seem to have had an incredible overnight success, it causes us to question whether our own company is on the right track. If we’re not careful, comparing ourselves like this can lead to making […]

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” – Bill Gates The process of transitioning your company from Good to Great is like that of a giant flywheel […]

“The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline…” – Jim Collins Discipline is the common denominator that runs through all three stages of making the leap from Good to Great. Stage One is Disciplined People, Stage Two is Disciplined Thought, and finally, stage three is Disciplined Action. Don’t confuse the […]

“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” – Isaiah Berlin In his Good to Great study, Jim Collins says that foxes pursue many ends at the same time and see the world in all its complexity – this leaves them scattered, diffused, and inconsistent. Hedgehogs on the other hand, simplify […]

“Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.” – Jack Welch Once a Level 5 Leader has finished getting the right people on their team, they focus Stage Two of making the leap from Good to Great – Disciplined Thought. This starts with facing the brutal facts […]

“The old adage ‘People are your most important asset’ is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.”– Jim Collins In order for a "good" company to transition into a "great" company, they must have a culture that embodies Disciplined People. Step One is to have a Level 5 Leader at the reins. Step […]

“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.” – Andrew Carnegie Richard's Software Development Company was floundering. He suspected that it was his own leadership, but he wasn't quite sure how to self-diagnose much less fix the problem. As he worked through Jim Collins […]

“Don’t find fault, find a remedy.” – Henry Ford So many companies find themselves themselves plodding along simply defining success as “not going out of business.” It doesn’t have to be this way, but since so many direct competitors find themselves in the same position, no one ever questions anything. However, when one of these […]

“My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things.” — Bill Gates In the first post of this series, we discussed how over 200 million Americans make New Year’s Resolutions, and how only about 8% of them actually see them through to the end. We talked about a […]