Josh Linkner's Blog, page 16

Why a Culture of Innovation is the Only Path to Sustainable Growth and Success

You’ve fine-tuned your processes, extracted every drop of cost from the system, and are meeting basic customer needs. In the previous era of business, strict managerial controls may have been enough, but today running a tight ship is table stakes. If we’re honest with ourselves, business as usual likely poses an existential threat – sooner than we may think, as the pace of change continues to accelerate.

Relying on a current product, market, cost, or distribution advantage is also a fool’s be...

The 14 Rules of History-Making Teams

It’s often been said that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” The notion is that the belief system – or core operating principles – of an organization are what matters most at the ground level. These core beliefs guide everyday decision-making, behavior, and responses to challenges. Clearly defined core values permeate every corner of a company, removing the burden of leaders to intervene constantly and allowing empowered team members a roadmap for high achievement. Having studied high-per...

Lady Gaga’s First Song; Picasso’s First Painting

At the age of four, Lady Gaga wasn’t bringing down the house for 30,000 roaring fans. In fact, Stefani Germanotta didn’t even become the Gaga we know until she’d studied and practiced music for years. Just like every other kid who picks up an instrument, she took up piano and plunked out an uneven version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Pablo Picasso didn’t begin crafting timeless masterpieces with his first paint set. He probably scrabbled out an uneven stick figure, as many of us did when...

Skip the Resolution; Go With a New Year’s Theme instead

The last week of December marks the creation of uncountable New Year’s resolutions. By the end of next month, however, the vast majority will be broken. So many of us resolve to change, only to have those commitments meet an untimely death. A single, small temptation can lead us astray, causing us to conclude that our resolutions are anything but resolute. Better luck next year, we tell ourselves, as we regress to our old ways.

A key problem with resolutions is their all-or-nothing nature. Th...

The Tyranny of Good Enough

Your chicken salad sandwich wasn’t bad, really. It was ‘good enough.’ The service wasn’t speedy, but also wasn’t horribly slow. It was just good enough. The environment was a bit messy and a tad dirty, but didn’t justify a call to the Health Department. “I guess it was good enough,” you mutter as you leave the mediocre restaurant.

While the chef, service staff, and proprietor went home that night feeling accomplished for meeting expectations and receiving no complaints, they ultimately fell v...

The Power of Surprise and Delight

Following the polite knock on my hotel room door, I was stunned. “Just a little something to welcome you to our hotel,” said the smiling and well-appointed young man as he placed it down on the desk in my room.

The beautiful display included a chocolate guitar, hand-dipped strawberries, and a few other candies. Along with some musical notes, the chocolate letters spelled out the word “welcome.” Inside the high quality envelope on which my name was neatly printed was a beautiful card reading,...

Heads Down vs. Heads Up

We’ve all heard people in the business world proclaim that they are “heads down” on a project. Or that they are unable to explore new opportunities since they are “heads down in execution mode.”

Consider, for a moment, the advantages of being “heads up” instead. Let’s compare the two states of being:

Heads Down
Focused on delivery
Tuning out distractions
Avoiding influence from your surroundings
Execution
Getting things done
Right now
What is
Deadlines

Heads Up
Focused on possibilities
Embrac...

Setbacks: Game Over or Game On?

What do Oprah Winfrey, Mick Jagger, and Jeff Bezos have in common? They are all incredibly successful, true, but they also have each suffered more than their share of knockdowns. Every great leader – from Gandhi to Galileo, from Beethoven and Zuckerberg – has stumbled. Those that make history also endure adversity.

A common quality among those we revere: they don’t allow their setbacks to become their defining moments. Instead, they muster the resilience of a street fighter to rise up and for...

A Simple Approach to Boost the Appeal of Your Product or Service

If you have a burning headache, you’ll do whatever it takes to subdue it. If it’s 3:00 am on a cold, snowy night and you are out of pain killers, you’ll bundle up, drive to a 24-hour pharmacy, and desperately pay nearly any cost to alleviate your pain.

Vitamins are a different story. They are a nice-to-have, not a gotta-have-right-now. You certainly won’t race out in the middle of the night for them. You’ll think twice about the cost, get to them when convenient, and likely forget them altoge...

What’s Your Firebird?

In 1953, a team of the most creative designers and engineers at General Motors set out to make history. Their task: invent the prototype car of the future. Unlike their mass-production counterparts who focused on streamlined operations, cost control, and maximizing profits, the dreamers on the Firebird project were charged with pushing the boundaries of possibility without the burden of commercialization.

These futuristic prototypes did more than turned heads. In addition to showing the wor...