Wake Up! : Inspiring and challenging strategies on what it takes to be a No-Compromise leader.
Title:
Wake Up! : Inspiring and challenging strategies on what it takes to be a No-Compromise leader.
Author:
Ducoff, Neil.
ISBN:
9780984862016
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (295 pages)
Contents:
Cover -- Table of Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Chapter 1 Finding Your "It" -- Believe -- Your passion will see you through -- Your business model: facelift or overhaul? -- Getting off the hamster wheel -- It's time to stretch and fly high -- Delivering the no-compromise personal touch -- When leaders have epiphanies -- Chapter 2 Leadership -- These days, it's great to be a leader -- What going 'no compromise' really means -- Living no-compromise leadership -- Leadership success is a moving target -- Every leader's internal battle -- Lions and tigers and bears - Oh my! -- You can't dance with the elephant in your business -- You can't lead a company walking on eggshells -- Ask the right questions -- Dictatorial and inflexible or determined and resolute -- Are you keeping the commitments you make? -- Confronting confrontation -- How to motivate employees -- Communicating without words -- Leave nothing unsaid -- When personal relationships compromise leadership thinking -- What's on your compromise list? -- Present a 'state of the company' address -- No-compromise resolutions -- Chapter 3 Making It Happen -- The problem with accountability -- Quality's biggest flaw -- The pressure test: Manage or meltdown -- Synchronize a sense of urgency -- No-compromise decisions are now in play -- What are your department managers really doing? -- Employee challenges: When do they end? -- Don't wait too long to fire someone -- The importance of emptying your bucket -- How to get more done in less time -- Feed on solutions not problems -- When the most significant breakthroughs occur -- Everyone is responsible for business growth -- Are you keeping your promise to the customer? -- Simple systems drive customer loyalty -- What's your hang time? -- Decide to take your business to the next level -- Why current reality is never good enough -- Chapter 4 Numbers.
How hard are you playing the game of business? -- Living on the financial edge isn't living -- It's hard to grow dragging yesterday's debt -- Managing pay expectations -- How owners make their accountants lazy -- The bottom line on growing the top line -- Chapter 5 Culture -- What's lurking behind your company's curtain? -- That getting-everyone-on-the-same-page thing -- Is your information flow really a drip? -- Passion and heart drive the numbers you want -- Behaviors first, numbers second -- Entitlement behavior is pure compromise -- When broken commitments compromise trust -- When 'inner circle' trust is compromised -- You need to hear it, and they're afraid to tell you -- Are you taking your long-term employees for granted? -- Employees quit leaders, not companies -- How to deal with difficult employees -- When your square peg can't fit your round hole -- Indifference: When 'I don't care' infects your company -- When mediocrity becomes the norm -- Leadership and creating great sculptures -- Black holes and the dark side -- Does your company have an attitude? -- How to implement a culture shift -- Changing your change resisters -- Standing ovations are earned - every day -- Free your culture of compromise -- Chapter 6 Future -- Someday, I'm gonna -- What are you building? -- To build a company that endures -- Growth and shifting accountability -- Doesn't want to mess up her '8' -- Increase the value of your business -- Question your 'Old Faithfuls' -- Surviving and thriving in the 'New Normal' -- Chapter 7 You -- Stop standing in your own way -- Respect your investment -- What part do you own? -- There's an excuse for that! -- Cynicism: Forever your nemesis -- Is it time to take back control of your company? -- Watching opportunities pass you by -- Don't allow it to get all over you -- What triggers your procrastination bug?.
Overcoming leadership stress -- Leadership and happiness -- To be everything - including what you're not -- Knowing when it's time to find your replacement -- How big is your decision? -- What's your exit strategy? -- Making the most of your 'time slot' -- The secret to getting less of what you don't want -- Stop. Breathe. Appreciate -- Why leaders obsess - and what to do about it -- Chapter 8 Strategies -- Ensuring 'quality of life' for your business -- Recharge your business every 90 days - or more often -- Beware of 'sound bite' solutions -- The wonderful, wacky world of online social networking -- Every system has an 'On/Off' switch -- Stuck in the vortex of 'low-level interference' -- 'Pay' attention -- Employees as partners: Be careful what you wish for -- When long-time top performers drop -- Performance systems: They only work if everyone plays -- Is your approach to empowerment a setup for failure? -- Let's give this recession a new name -- Business survival in crazy times -- An Entrepreneurial Manifesto: Part 1 -- An Entrepreneurial Manifesto: Part 2.
Abstract:
Leaders, human as they are, are subject to numerous foibles and are continually a work-in-progress. Neil strives to spur leaders to ever-improving levels of communication, accountability, profitable growth what is needed to succeed in boon times and down economies.We call this collection the best-of-the-best, although that might be a misnomer. It is more precisely a better-than-the-best compendium. We worked to truly make Wake Up! a timeless resource. Wake Up! Is more than a cup of Joe it is an in-your-face double shot of espresso.Wake Up! is not the type of book that youÆll read start to finish like a tense crime novel. YouÆll pick and choose what columns speak to you in any given moment. DonÆt worry about reading the chapters in order. This is a case where itÆs most assuredly ôall good.öAt times you may meet a topic with resistance and defense. You may be spurred to action or just anger. Or, you may read several chapters in a row, thinking, ôYes, yes, yes,ö and then not put thought into practice.ThatÆs what this book is here for to meet you on your leadership path and to illuminate the road ahead. You may not want to hear whatÆs being said; you may not be ready to hear it. Read it anyway. Walk away, and then reread it. The columns that make you the most uncomfortable are most likely the ones you need the most. Have your management team and staff read them. Discuss them and come up with an action plan for your business.Neil writes about the business challenges that lie in the shadows. HeÆs brave enough to shine a light on the areas that many would prefer to leave alone. HeÆs not afraid to stir the pot. The question is, ôAre you ready?öWake Up! offers guidance, insight and inspiration that you wonÆt find anywhere else. What you do with it is up to you.What readers are saying about Wake Up!ôWake Up! simply makes sense and brings to light the tough
questions and the difficult situations all entrepreneurs face.öJohn T. Harms, founder and CEO, Millennium by Harms Software Inc.ôIf you canÆt take the heat or donÆt want the truth, donÆt read this book! Neil speaks the truth when he says almost all business problems are the result of executives compromising when they should stand up.öJim Horan, president, The One Page Business Plan CompanyôThis book will make you smarter, happier, richer, more confident, prepared to make better decisions and the envy of your competitors. Read it before they do!öMatthew Cross, president, LeadershipAlliance.com; author, Get Your Priorities StraightôSimple, relevant and practical. Neil has stuffed Wake Up! with golden nuggets that everyone would love to read, be inspired and be a better 'no compromise,' innovative leader.ö Praveen Gupta, director, Center for Innovation Science and Applications, Illinois Institute of TechnologyôDucoff does it again! Wake Up! is brilliant and to the point. This a phenomenal source for any business.öJohn R. DiJulius III, author, WhatÆs the Secret?.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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