Shulist Group Inc.

Managing the space between sales and a delivery organization has it’s unique challenges. Over the many years I’ve walked in that somewhat rough ground I’ve learned a thing or two about how to manage the process and in doing so, myself.
Continue reading ‘Sales to Services handoff’ »

Leadership is challenging enough without having to deal with discovering that your employees, employer or work environment has become tainted with unscrupulous behaviors, shady decisions or, in extreme cases illegal acts. Discovering any of these situations can be a difficult revelation but often dealing with the backlash once you “blow the whistle” can be devastating. In fact, recently The Economist published a list of countries ranked according to their propensity for bribes and cronyism.

Having been through this career changing event on at least a few occasions, your humble author knows some of the pitfalls and steps to take to minimize the potential corporate reaction. Following the next few steps will help you address the problem and put some structure to your approach.
Continue reading ‘Whistle Stop!’ »

In our work we often get involved with budget review and preparation for small businesses. In many engagements we have been asked to review specific budgets and comment or provide advice and improvements. While there is no absolute formula to creating budgets there are some areas that seem to continuously creep into planning that can be avoided to ensure you get the best budget for your effort. Here are five areas that many budgets fail;
Continue reading ‘Top Five Budget Pratfalls’ »

Some time ago a few colleagues of ours were sitting around and talking with us about the various scales we have for reference. These include the Beaufort Scale (measures wind speed), Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness, The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, and others.

Given our regular ill-informed state, and the fact that drink was on the table, we got into an argument over what makes up the four types of scales (it turns out that the four are nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio and you can read about them here). The argument ultimately led us to opine that there was no scale of conflict.
Continue reading ‘Shulist Scale Of Conflict’ »

Many of the vendors and carriers who advertise (or request) “carrier class” or “carrier grade” products, really do not know of what they speak! In most cases this is said as though it were some worldwide unspoken standard. This is not the case. In our experience the need to develop a standard by which you can measure or compare independent solutions sets, against a defined expectation, is a must, if you wish to be successful in selecting, deploying and managing support system solutions.

In our work in the past we have been asked for definitions of carrier class (or grade) standards. We think there is a range of options that any carrier might find acceptable. So at the risk of being considered buffoons, here goes:
Continue reading ‘Carrier Class Defined’ »

Some time ago I was asked to speak to a group of students about my perspectives on work, business and life. I took the opportunity to review all those things I learned after I reached twenty years old (about the point I realized I did not know everything) and sifted through the list until I was left with five important things.
Continue reading ‘Five Things I Wish I Knew Earlier in Life’ »

Three Truths of Cycling: A Leader’s Insight

A few summers ago I had the opportunity to ride one of the most pleasant bicycle routes in Ontario. My daughter invited me down to join her on a ride through Wolfe Island which is a ten minute ferry ride south of Kingston. Now Wolfe Island is no Tour de France but it is a great location for some easy rolling. It also has spectacular views of the Kingston waterfront, the lake boat shipping channels, and summer sailboat races. Not to mention that the locals on the Island have a completely different perspective on how life should proceed.

During part of that ride my daughter was not her usual talkative self and we filled the gaps in the conversation with the spectacular views and thinking about where we were. It was during one of those lulls in conversation that I made an important connection between leadership coaching and the truth about bicycling. Continue reading ‘Bicycle Leadership’ »

The Art of Letting Go When Managing Objectives

As a family, some years ago, we had the good fortune to sail the Grecian Cyclades Islands. During this journey I read Homer’s classic, The Odyssey. Contrasting the technology we had on board our sailboat to the Mediterranean’s original sailors, I was astounded by the fact that even with technical advantages, we still struggled with the age-old problem of wind, water and weather.

We had departed from Athens along with about a four other boats. Each having chosen different routes to the various scenic islands within the archipelago. Some of our decisions were dependent upon avoiding the prevalent Meltami winds that blow in the area in July and August. about a week later, as fate would have it, all sailboats were harboured together during a storm on the Island of Paros.

Continue reading ‘Five Islands Many Routes’ »

Leaders are created from within

What you become as a leader is a direct result of the focus and effort you put into your own personal development. Here are five things you can do now to improve your chances of being a successful leader. Take the initiative and do-it-yourself.

Plan

Re-assess your planning effectiveness. Once each weekend sit down for 20 minutes and review your important plans for the coming week. Focus on highlighting your long term objectives and the important things in your horizon. Starting on Monday, at the end of each day, take 10 minutes to repeat this process until Thursday looking forward to the next day.The cumulative effort takes only one hour weekly but you’ll gain at least 4 hours more of productive time if you keep your eye on the plan regularly and routinely.
Continue reading ‘DIY Spring Cleaning’ »

I have always been perplexed by the leadership challenge of how to minimize the risks of delegating responsibility while ensuring that the work was done right. How does a leader encourage employees to take on tasks, assume risk and still get the job done right? Further, in this rapid paced world we all work in, I find that not a lot of time is spent on analyzing the outcomes of decisions to improve the odds of “getting it right” the next time. Or for that matter determining if we truly did get it right? This follow up analysis is the responsibility of the leadership team, but sadly, it is rarely done.

What the heck happened here?

While leaders aren’t responsible to analyze each and every subordinate action, there should be an atmosphere of encouragement around the process of evaluating outcomes. As a leader, I’ve developed a process of minimizing risks while delegating and assessing results as a follow up. This process has been developed over the past twenty years and has served me well. I apply it even today in my work as a leadership consultant.

Continue reading ‘Making Mistakes - Delegating Success’ »