2K12

As we begin a new year, here are several leadership keys we are emphasizing while coaching clients for success in 2K12.

1  Safety: Be ever mindful and attentive to your own safety and the safety of others. Safety doesn’t happen by accident. Alert today, alive tomorrow! Safety first.

2  Purpose: It matters why you do what you do and how you choose to do it. Live and work each day with best intentions and a positive, compelling purpose.

3  People: Strategy is only as good as the people and teams who execute it. Choose strategies and pursue opportunities that leverage your proven strengths. Assign the right people and teams to the right work. Recognize and reward people daily for the actions and decisions that make a positive difference.

4  Value: Profit today more than ever is an expression of real value created by products or services that meet or exceed customer or civic requirements. Can you distinguish the significant few deliverables that your customers truly need from the many "other" things they say they want? Excel at fundamentals. Simplify. Drive out waste and non-value added activities.

5 Innovation: Continuous improvement of aging products and services may extend a business lifecycle but innovation is essential for longer-term growth and performance. What would you do new or different this year if you were re-starting your business or career from scratch? What would you stop doing? How much revenue will you earn from products or services created in the last fifteen months?

6  Demographics: The aging of population in the Western World and in China and the growing affluence of people in emerging regional economies are driving significant global and local shifts in consumer demand and commodity pricing. Be sure to examine the extraordinary or potentially devastating impact of these demographic trends on your business and career.

7  Deflation: Heightened saving, ongoing deleveraging, wavering consumer confidence and ever-increasing labor productivity are causing prices to fall for many products, services and commodities. Are you mitigating your risk and pursuing new opportunities created by this deflationary cycle? Deflation increases the real value of money for those who have access to cash or credit and invest it wisely.

8  Sustainability: We have arrived at a tipping point when we can no longer avoid or delay taking responsibility for the longer-term consequences of our immediate choices. What will our grandchildren think of the leadership decisions and investments we make this year? Live within your means. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

9  Speed: While it is important to proceed at-times with caution,  today’s marketplace tends to reward rapid release of simplified or minimal viable products that test design assumptions, conserve working capital and establish a platform for subsequent iterations. Be nimble. Be quick. Velocity matters.

10 Time: You’ve got all the time you’re ever going to have. Who do you choose to spend it with? What projects or activities matter most to you? Time flies. Carpe diem. Make your 2012 the best it can be!

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“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at time.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“Wisdom is the power to put our time and knowledge to the proper use.” ~ Thomas J. Watson

“The time is always right to do right.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.” ~ Tennessee Williams

“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.” ~ Henry David Thoreau