Chapter 23: Choose Your Battles
When you lead a public company or a business that’s in the public eye, people will come after you publicly, and as a CEO you need to show great restraint and strength in the face of often withering criticism. You …
Entries by The Hayzlett Group
Chapter 22: Fail Big
If you’re going to fail, do it big! Too many leaders want to find someone to blame or share the responsibility of failing. And I admit the temptation to deflect accountability can be strong. But change agents accept the fact …
Chapter 21: The Art of War
Needed to win a war: “The ordered arrangement and maneuver of units in relation to each other and/or the enemy in order to use their full potentialities. The employment of units in combat. It includes the ordered arrangement and maneuver …
Chapter 20: Anticipate Problems and Avoid Them
Change agents can’t avoid all problems, just as drivers can’t avoid all traffic. But we can prepare ourselves to anticipate those problems and either avoid them, get around them, or attack them, just as IBM did. (The ad said IBM …
Chapter 19: Competition is Critical, Destroy Your Enemy
In order to get my team ready for a battle, I teach them literally how to go to war. I call it “Project Patton”, and it has become my field map for change agents who are heading into their own …
Chapter 18: Never Stop Pitching
Did you know that cow tipping doesn’t really exist? It’s never been done. First of all, cows don’t sleep standing up. Second of all, even if they did, what makes you think you could tip them? Simply put, anyone who …
Chapter 17: Success Takes Hard Work and Grit
My friend, Joe Pulizzi, content marketing evangelist, said about cow killing, “you can’t half-ass your business. You go all in or you go home.” Sure you can “dress” your change differently, but you can never stop at the kill, …
Chapter 16: Mastering your 118
Let’s take action on this, today! There are 4 steps: 1. Grab the attention of your prospect. 2. Convey who you are. 3. Describe what your business offers. 4. Explain the promises you’ll deliver. My http://bit.ly/118pitch site will walk you …
Chapter 15: 118: The New Elevator Pitch
The 118 is the 21st century version of what people call the elevator pitch, an out-of-date name for the worthy idea that you need to sell what your company offers (and you) in the span of an elevator ride.The 118 …
Chapter 14: Change Process First
Focus. Accountability. Simplicity. Trust.
Fast allowed my businesses to dump outdated operating procedures and marketing models and adopt new ones that fit the current business. Over time, it helps reshape company cultures for the better. Even when we screwed up, …
Chapter 13: Be Direct and Transparent
Imagine a company where there are no “white elephants”. A company where everyone can raise their hand, speak honestly and talk through sticky issues.
Being direct and transparent can be risky, but it will cause less pain than “I told …
Chapter 12: Build the Architecture to Support Your Leadership
It’s one thing to learn to fire yourself from the jobs you aren’t good at; it’s another things to learn to fire yourself from the jobs you’re good at but shouldn’t be doing.
My agent, Wendy Keller of Keller Media, …