This essay is about effective leadership. But not the out-front, high-energy, heroic, final-step type of work that wins recognition in magazines about management. Instead it’s about an element of effectiveness that comes from the unglamorous, behind the scenes, stick to the systems stuff that’s just as important, but rarely gets headlines. It’s not about the […]
The guiding model for effective management at Zingerman’s is what we call Servant Leadership, which details that leaders are obligated to provide great service to the organization and, more specifically, to the staff. Stewardship is one of two important approaches to making Servant Leadership effective. (The other is our Entrepreneurial Approach.) The concept for Stewardship […]
There is no single, “right” way to be a leader. Finding the style and routine that’s suited to you, and to the particulars of your environment, is not easy. Even when you find one that works in one phase of your business, it may be less effective as your company grows. What follows is one […]
I first met Geri Larkin in the early ’80s, not long after we opened the Deli. She was a consultant with Deloite & Touche, and has since left the world of high-powered consulting to become a Buddhist monk. Fortunately, she contributed a number of exceptional books on business and, speaking personally, left me with a […]
Editor’s Note: The previous article in this series, The Entrepreneurial Approach to Management, presented why an Entrepreneurial Approach to employee management will benefit your business. In the second of this two-part series, you will learn how to put this approach into practice. The Entrepreneurial Approach to Management is the opposite of the bureaucratic methods of […]
Editor’s Note: In this first of a two-part series, you will learn why an Entrepreneurial Approach will help you manage and motivate your staff. In Part 2, The Entrepreneurial Approach in Action, you will learn how to put this approach into practice. Preface: The New Blue Shirt Case Study Imagine you are the manager at […]
Not many in leadership roles are looking to add extra responsibilities. It’s a challenge just to keep up. Nevertheless, it is vital to find a way to actively and regularly teach classes for staff. Teaching classes within (and outside of) our organization is one of the most valuable uses of my time. In fact, we’ve […]
One of the many concepts I gleaned from Peter Drucker’s writings was his belief that, when making a decision, we should look at whether the issue at hand is what he calls a repetitive problem (i.e., one that will recur) or, rather, one that’s truly a unique situation (i.e., one that occurs rarely). Unique situations, […]
Nearly everyone reading this article finds themselves in some sort of a management or leadership role. Ever wonder what we’re doing there? I think most everyone has at some point. Like so many folks in management roles, I knew a lot about what I thought poor management was. So when I got into management, much […]
In a previous article, Why and How Visioning Works, I wrote about how the process of visioning which, as we define it at Zingerman’s, is a picture of the success of a project at a particular time in the future. I noted that a vision isn’t a strategic plan—which is the map to where we […]
When we start any project, we use the process of visioning—figuring out what we want success to look like—to get it going. I’m selling visioning because it tangibly improves the quality of the organization and the personal lives of those who use it. Without visioning, it’s easy to be dragged down by pressures and problems, […]
It’s no secret that I was a history major, which obviously makes me slightly more inclined than the average American to advocate sharing stories of where we’ve come from. But I’m here to tell you that organizations that regularly and actively share stories of their past get better staff buy-in, make better decisions and probably […]
