Up Your Business!: 7 Steps to Fix, Build, or Stretch Your Organization, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded

Chapter 5. Look in the Mirror: Executing Your Leadership Twelve-Pack

Effective leaders are more self-aware than their less successful counterparts. They look in the mirror, assume responsibility for the success of their business, and focus on a handful of daily deliverables paramount to that success and execute them day in and day out. I term these deliverables your Leadership Twelve-Pack. As I present this daily priority to-do list for leaders, evaluate your proficiency and attention to these areas, as they will have a decided bearing on your success in fixing, building, or stretching your organization.

I had a conversation with a client recently who related how his general manager had fired three key people after the store had two consecutive bad months. The client was miffed because this was the same braggart who’d been taking the credit a few months back when business was rolling. My friend went on to mention that the general manager wasn’t showing up on weekends and missed the last day of the month even though the store was struggling. He lamented that in recent months this guy had been acting more like he owned the place than like an employee there. The client took responsibility for letting things get so far off track. I suggested his general manager might be approaching his “sell by” date and recommended a course of action.

This encounter reminded me what’s at stake when you choose a manager of your people. Careers will be made or broken based on this choice; the organization’s ...