Dando Advisors

9 Reasons Growth-Hungry Leaders Use a Strategic Plan

Strategic Planning does not deal with future decisions. It defines the future of present decisions. As a leader your job is to have a blind date with destiny!

 An active, articulate, well-communicated direction for a corporation, division, or business unit is evidence of game changing leadership. Effective strategic plans encompass organizational discipline, accountability and direction.


Does it follow that an organization that lacks a strategic plan also lacks leadership? Perhaps.  The leader who claims, “Of course I know where we are going.  With this market it is obvious what we have to do. Besides we cannot afford the money or the time right now to get away and plan. I will let the others in on the direction on a need-to-know basis” is at least several shingles short of a full roof when it comes to leadership.

 As leaders, we often forget…we get what we set ourselves up for!

A strategic plan provides: 

1. A unified direction for your company: A strategic plan is a valuable leadership device. Employees sense when the organization is focused and when it is diffused.
2. More effective communication: A consistent means of expressing

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HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY: 3 Steps to Making 2012 Your Best Year Ever!

Have you ever encountered people who say they desperately want to change their circumstances, but do not want to change themselves? They unconsciously choose the “hard way” over “hard work” and simply hope things will turn out for the best.

Dr. Woodrow Kroll recently reported in his radio broadcast that 3% of people have written goals, 10%  have goals but haven’t written them down,, and the other 87% simply do not have any specific goals at all.  Dr. Kroll noted that people with written goals are 50%-100% more likely to achieve them than those who haven’t written them down.   As Zig Ziglar says, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

Why do people avoid writing down their goals? What story do they tell themselves that makes not writing them down OK? Why is hope so attractive, even though it doesn’t work?

With the New Year upon us, it’s a great time to check your systems, people, strategies and resolutions to make sure you and your company don’t rely on HOPE as a strategy.  As leaders, we often forget…we get what we set ourselves up for.

Three overly obvious and embarrassingly… Read More >

Only 1% Have What It Takes to Lead … Do You?

Dando’s definition of lead.er.ship \ lēd-ər-ship\ n : Leadership is a walk on the wild side. If we did not have to deal with people or problems, leadership would be a piece of cake. Instead, leading is all about aggressively moving toward a clear goal while predicting the “train wrecks.” Mix in limited resources, uncertainty and people who may, or may not, come through in a pinch. Leadership is about growing in the face of crisis. Crisis is the eruption of chaos … it takes leaders to the edge, where some do not survive.

I’ve talked with more than 2,000 executives and their teams at growth-hungry companies around the world. In my experience, only about 1% of people have what it takes to be a Game-Changer. By gathering information and observing behavior – and its consequences – I’ve gained perspective on the traits I believe these leaders possess.

Heaven knows the world doesn’t need another article on the characteristics of a leader. The reason I am sharing my thoughts is to provide you with a tool you can use to 1) measure against your own perceptions and 2) let your team express how they… Read More >

10 Steps to Make Your Meetings Suck Less

 A couple of years ago I was talking to my friend John Day, who was complaining about how much time he was spending in meetings and how bad they sucked. He had to get to the office super early and stay super late just to get “real” work done. 

I asked John why he and his company were having so many meetings.  He said most of them were regularly scheduled meetings to share information and give and get updates.  I asked him the obvious question: “John, if these meetings are not a good use of time or suck so bad, why do you and everyone else keep going to them?”  He sheepishly said… “They were ‘mandatory’ and no one ever questions them?” 

I told him not to worry about it;  it is very normal for a successful, growth-hungry company to experience what I call “Fieldtrip Meetings,” where people show up to meetings and take “mental fieldtrips” until they’re over.  Then when the “fieldtrip” meeting is over, the “real” meetings (sidebar meetings) begin in the hallways and offices of everyone who was supposed… Read More >

Where’s your company on The Business Lifecycle™?

Part 1 in a Series of 4

The Business Lifecycle™ is a model that enables business leaders to identify the level of performance at which their business is operating and to determine exactly what needs to be done to move that business to the next level.

The Business Lifecycle™ is based on my and many other’s years of experience and is an approximation of how successful businesses grow and some of the problems (The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™) they encounter in their efforts to become what I call a mature, financially stable, professionally managed and led business (Level III).  From my experience this should be the objective of all growth hungry businesses.

By having a sensitivity and general understanding of the stages of development in The Business Lifecycle™ managers  will be in a position to predict problems and thereby prepare solutions and coping strategies to help the company go to the next level before a crisis gets out of hand.

Companies tend to pass through a series of predictable developmental phases as they mature.  Transitions between these phases… Read More >

Welcome to The Warning Signs of Success™

My hope is this blog will become a must-read guide for you and other business leaders at all levels, from the boardroom to the mailroom.  It is a distillation of more than 20 years of my hands-on experience.

Why you should read The Warning Signs of Success™ : I will help you normalize and predict the journey to creating a scalable business by indentifying the preventable bad habits that eventually lead to “business train wrecks.”

• You will understand why it is critical that you AND your team know exactly where you and your business are on The Business Lifecycle™.
• You will learn what the difference is between building a business that can scale and growing a business by trial and error, or “see and solve.”  Better yet, you will learn how to build your business and your team so they can reach their full potential.
• You will learn how to predict the problems (The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™ ) before they show up in the results and normalize your journey to scalability.
• You will gain uncommon insight from real-world stories and case studies of others who have faced the

… Read More >