Don’t Be Driven By Pride Or Fear - 

When things are going wrong, leaders can succumb to too much pride and not seek out help or, worse, not admit their mistakes. Leaders can feel that they know better or be too afraid to be wrong. Just like the best lessons come from failure, so to do the best insights come from admitting you don't (can't) know everything. 

Do Not Hide From The Truth -

Note: Spending some time recently with a client, helping them sort through their data aggregation and clean-up, gave me the opportunity to catch up with Randa Minkarah, Co-Founder & COO from Transform  Randa and I talked about the challenges that companies are still having regarding not only being “data-driven” but also turning their data into insights to get what they (actually) want – more revenue.  Randa details below a few simple steps (and simple home truths) about this process. Enjoy! Pat

Generating Sustainable Revenues from Your Data

by Randa Mikarah - Transform Digital - @Randam2

Use these questions to overcome corporate inertia and move things forward

Legacy organizations and corporate institutions are filled with inertia; cultures that promote a “Tell me what to do” environment.

I once inherited a department where my predecessor had purposely silo'd the department to develop a mystique about their work. Promoting that her team’s work was “black magic, smoke, and mirrors” was how she felt she could best retain her position.

The effect of this type of leadership (really managing not leadership) was that she also compartmentalized all decision-making within her role.  Making it very clear (via words and actions) that decisions were made by her - and her alone. The only way her employees, (because there was no "team"), knew what they were to be working on ways to go to her and get a list.  When the list was complete - they went back for more. 

Her employees didn't make any decisions about their own work.  Consequently, they didn't think.  They didn't think about the work itself, the impact it had on their workmates, the company, and (heaven forbid!) on how it impacted customers.  In fact - they were afraid to think because it had consequences.

This kind of imposed inertia promotes a work environment where team members become "List Junkies." At best, personal ownership is something that individuals achieve only by circumventing specific aspects/tasks of their work away from the eyes of their boss. At worst, it transforms team members into... 

 #LeadershipMinit

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Executive Summary: