How to execute, How to Innovate, The best employee handbook ever + new webinar | This week at Predictable Success

One of the downsides of running a tight ship is that when things go wrong, I’ve no-one to blame but myself.
So when someone emailed to point out that the ‘Events’ page on our website was empty, and did that mean I had retired (!)…well, let’s say the blame options were limited.
Events are now updated!

Anyway, the ‘Events’ page is now fully updated, and our webmaster (me) has been spoken to sternly, regarding the need for a more systematized approach to his work. Hopefully it won’t happen again. Take a look at the upcoming events, and if you’re in the area, let me know and perhaps we can arrange to meet up.
Speaking of events, the Boston 1-Day Predictable Workshop was held last week. As always, it was a fantastic experience. I talk more about it under the fold, but I want to share with you one of the true delights of my job. Here are three excerpts from 3 emails from 3 different people – all from attendees last week, and all unsolicited:
“The workshop was incredible – truly transformational.”
“The facilities were perfect, your engagement was masterful, and the content was deep and rich.”
“The workshop was truly life-changing. I will never think of myself as a leader in the same way again.”
I love that I get to do this, and I hope you’ll take advantage of the offer below to come join me at one of the upcoming workshops.
Also this week: A new (free) webinar; The best employee handbook ever; 4 reasons you can’t execute; and why innovation so often fails.
More later!

“Our Business Grew 1 Year in 1 day”

Casey Graham of Giving Rocket came with his CEO to the June Predictable Success held in Boston last week.
Here’s what he wrote me the next day (entirely unsolicited, by the way):
“I attended the Predictable Success workshop thinking it would be just like the others I’ve attended in the past. I was dead wrong. It was the best live event I’ve ever attended. Les answered our questions, gave us great content and didn’t try to sell us on more stuff.
Most importantly, this workshop fast forwarded our business 1 year in 1 day. I so believe in the Predictable Success method, that if you attend this workshop and don’t think it’s worth the investment, I will personally pay your fee back to you.”
I like that. And I’d like you to experience the same turbo-charge for your business.
Early Bird registration is now open for the next 3 upcoming workshops – if you sign up for any one of them this week, you’ll get $150 off the cost of registration.
Details of the workshops are here, and registration is here.

Free Webinar: Building a Highly Effective Team

Do you work with a team? Are you dependent on others to achieve your goals?
If so, you won’t want to miss the next Predictable Success Webinar: Building a Highly Effective Team.
In this free 60-minute webinar (45 minutes presentation, 15 minutes for your questions), I’ll explain in detail:
– The 3 (misunderstood) reasons why teams underperform – even if they’re composed of individual superstars;
– How to use the VOP-S model to uncover hidden dynamics in your team, that are frustrating its ability to perform at a consistently high level;
– The 5 steps you can take today to transform an existing group into a high-performance team – literally in hours, not days.
More details on this free webinar – and registration – is here. And if you can’t make the date, register anyway, and we’ll send you a link to the recording.

Best Company Handbook Ever

I love innovative, risk-taking high-quality businesses, but they’re surprisingly rare, and hard to find.
Interestingly, many of them (like Hiut Denim, featured last time) don’t brag much.
One such company is Valve Software, a great game design business.
The core of their success? As with all great companies, it’s their relationship with their people.
Download their employee handbook (pdf) and take a read. I guarantee it’ll be the first employee handbook you’ll find genuinely inspiring.

4 Reasons You Can’t Execute

Over at INC., we hit the front page again this week (looks modest and pretends to buff fingernails).
Although the format is theoretically limiting (400 – 600 words on leadership topics is hard to stay inside), I have a great editor, the wonderful Nicole Carter, who every week shows me just how much ‘puff’ can be pulled out of a piece of writing 🙂
This week’s article is on the 4 reasons organizations stumble with execution. Also since the last newsletter, I wrote abut the 4 things great leaders do.
You can see the archives of all my Inc articles to date, here.

Why Innovation Stalls

My friend Rita McGrath blogs regularly on HBR, and this piece on innovation is a great example.
However, when I got a chance to read the original piece from which the blog post is an excerpt, I thought it was so good, with 5 great lessons on innovation for businesses of any size whatsoever, that I asked her permission to share the whole article with you…
…and here it is (pdf) (Thanks to Rita and HBR).
By the way, I interviewed Rita last year- you can listen to her talk about her outstanding work on innovation with many great companies – and much, much more – here.