Accountability

12 Jun, 2014

Is It Always Right to Be Right?

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:28+00:00June 12th, 2014|Accountability, Corporate Culture, Government & Politics, Integrity & Ethics, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

The 1971 Oscar in the Short Film, Cartoon category went to a piece titled “Is It Always Right To Be Right.” It was directed by Lee Mishkin, narrated by Orson Welles, and written by Warren Schmidt. The opening words of the film are: There once was a land where people were always right. They knew they were right and they were proud of it. It was a land where people stated with confidence, "I am right and you are wrong." These were words of conviction, courage, strength, and moral certainty. In this fictional land, any attempt at cooperation and understanding were viewed as cowardice and weakness. Everyone was so convinced of their rightness that no one dared to utter words such as, “You may be right” or “I may be wrong.”

29 May, 2014

Jack Be Nimble: Sure, but how?

By Randy Pennington|2014-10-20T16:56:01+00:00May 29th, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

This would have been the message if the speaker at your last business meeting presented in nursery rhymes: Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack jump over The candle stick. You feel better, right? You now know what is expected of you and the definition of success. And, you have no real context for why it is important or idea about how to move forward.

13 May, 2014

Focus on What Truly Matters

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:29+00:00May 13th, 2014|Accountability, Book Reviews, Integrity & Ethics, Leadership, Personal Development, Results|

These days it seems that we’re all so busy, overcommitted, and information-obsessed. Our never-ending to-do lists are long and we run around trying to “keep up” or “be important,” and in the process stress ourselves out. Unfortunately, it often takes something bad to happen to slow us down, wake us up, and force us to focus on what truly matters most in life.

27 Apr, 2014

Defining Integrity: How Leaders Earn Trust & Respect

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:30+00:00April 27th, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Corporate Culture, Integrity & Ethics, Leadership|

How do you define integrity? Is there an absolute definition? Or, do you find yourself quoting the phrase made famous by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart: “I know it when I see it”? We know that it appears at or near the top of every list of desirable leadership traits. It is the essential ingredient for building and sustaining trust with others. Go ahead—take a stab at it. Integrity is . . . It is more difficult to define integrity than you thought, isn’t it?

15 Apr, 2014

Why Responsive Government is an Oxymoron … and Why Your Elected Officials are to Blame

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:31+00:00April 15th, 2014|Accountability, Government & Politics, Innovation, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

The government we want is nimble, flexible, and responsive. The government we experience, in many cases, is slow, cumbersome, and totally unresponsive. Let’s put this another way: We want our government to operate like our favorite business. We believe, in contrast, that our government is the poster child for lumbering bureaucratic inefficiency and employees who are out of touch with the realities of the marketplace. Twenty plus years of working with private and public sector organizations has taught me that the truth is actually somewhere between the two extremes.

6 Apr, 2014

The Motivational Prescription for Failure

By Randy Pennington|2014-10-20T18:15:00+00:00April 6th, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Personal Development, Results|

I saw this quote by David Frost posted on Twitter: “Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will naturally come.” It sounds great, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is not true.

17 Mar, 2014

10 Words Entrepreneurs Should Use Every Day

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:36+00:00March 17th, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

Jay Goltz writes a blog on small business and entrepreneurship for the New York Times. His March 10, 2014 posting was titled “10 Words Entrepreneurs Should Use With Caution.” In that piece, Goltz shared 10 [...]

11 Mar, 2014

Inside the House of Lies: Why Large Consulting Firms Are Often Bad at Change

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:36+00:00March 11th, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

I received this email last week. The author’s name has been withheld in order to protect his/her job: “I read your book Make Change Work. and it made me angry. What made me angry is the fact that I work as a management consultant for one of the largest consulting firms and I am ashamed how few (if any) of the wisdoms we actually take from your book and coach our clients accordingly. Very often, we are in gross ignorance of the very valid insights and tips you have in your little book.”

4 Feb, 2014

Leaders Don’t Hide

By Randy Pennington|2014-10-20T18:20:32+00:00February 4th, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

Leaders distinguish themselves in times of great risk and great reward. Whether it is the political leader who bolsters our confidence in times of crisis or the business leader who follows her instincts to seize an opportunity, we respect and admire the leader who is out front when the stakes are high.

4 Jan, 2014

A Result to Remember Part II: How GE Proved that Sometimes it IS the Product

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:36+00:00January 4th, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

Three weeks back I wrote about my exceptional service experience at Sewell Lexus of Dallas. The theme of the post was that it was the Sewell people rather than their product that has kept me as a loyal customer for over 20 years. The premise behind that post is the same one I offered in my 2006 book, Results Rule!: Fundamentals are the minimum. Being distinctive is the difference if it adds value. I can purchase a Lexus from a number of different dealers. The quality and service of the Sewell staff makes them distinctive in a way that adds extreme value. The very nice folks that service GE kitchen appliances just reminded me that you can’t forget the first part of my premise: Fundamentals are the minimum. Because without the fundamentals, there is nothing you can do to stand out with your customers (at least not in a positive way).

3 Jan, 2014

Why Most of Us Won’t Achieve Our New Year’s Resolutions

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:37+00:00January 3rd, 2014|Accountability, Leadership, New Year's Resolutions, Personal Development, Results|

Most of the talk about New Year’s Resolutions is just that – talk. Despite all of our good intentions, most of us won’t achieve our goals for the year. Research released by the University of Scranton Psychology Department reports that only 8 percent of Americans are regularly successful in achieving their resolution. 49 percent achieve occasional success, and 24 percent are never successful. So in other words, the odds are stacked against you even if you set a goal for the New Year

18 Dec, 2013

A Result to Remember: It’s Not the Product. It’s the People.

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:37+00:00December 18th, 2013|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

Delivering customer service – at least the way it is practiced in most companies – is easy. The customer asks you for something, and you give it to them. Building a culture that is obsessed with serving customers is hard. Carl Sewell’s family of auto dealerships is at or near the top for sales and service with the brands they represent for one simple reason: They are the best at sustaining a culture that serves customers.

27 Nov, 2013

The Missing Measure that Drives Culture Change

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:38+00:00November 27th, 2013|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

Culture change follows behavior and performance change not the other way around. If you buy into that premise, the behavior and performance you expect, enable, measure, reward, and hold people accountable for will become the habits that define the culture. The best organizations have clarity, alignment, and execution across each of these areas. And that leads to the question of “how do you know a change is taking place?”

14 Oct, 2013

Three Lessons About Leading Change from the Debt Ceiling Chaos

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:38+00:00October 14th, 2013|Accountability, Business Strategy, Communication, Corporate Culture, Government & Politics, Integrity & Ethics, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

There has to be something we can learn from Washington’s failure to address the debt limit, right? There are three very important lessons about leading change you can take from the chaos over approving the federal budget and raising the debt ceiling.

23 Sep, 2013

Deliver the Best Customer Service

By Randy Pennington|2016-10-29T15:29:38+00:00September 23rd, 2013|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Results|

Don’t worry about the sale. Just take care of the customer. Give the customer the best customer service you can deliver, even if the customer isn’t buying, and eventually the sale will come.

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