Leadership

Hard-earned lessons from decades of building and running businesses.

Below are 292 leadership posts from Tim. Use the filters to find what you are looking for within this category.

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Newsletter – “Me First!” by Tim McCarthy

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

Note: This is an article I was asked to write for Foster Families Today recently. I thought it was applicable and interesting enough to all parents, families and people in...
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Newsletter: Intentions and Actions

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

Often our intentions in business are quite different than our actions, which causes organizational and communication dissonance. [more] At a team meeting recently, Bill Leamon said something I hope I...
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Incremental Gains

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

The big idea is elusive, at best, and can take years to develop.  So, the best organizations develop a consistent pattern of small gains and progress while they’re looking for...
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Newsletter: From Player to Coach

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

Growth in organizations requires growth in their leaders.  Good leaders learn to make the hard transition from player to coach – doer to teacher of doers. [more] As a big...
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Newsletter – “Finding the Good Guys” by Tim McCarthy

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

My involvement in the foundation’s for-profit businesses is now “from a distance.” And I’m amazed by what that distance lends for perspective I can use to help my partners and...
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Newsletter: Find Good People and Give them Respect

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

Complex problems are best solved by simple, if sometimes difficult approaches.  The most important of these is getting good people and respecting their work. [more] This Irish kid from Ashtabula...
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Newsletter: Don’t Die Not Knowing

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

If there is something you’d really like to do, now is the time to measure it, then if it is anything short of fatal, do it. It’s 1988. I’m golfing...
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Newsletter: Discipline Solves Problems

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

Good decision making is the result of good discipline. My sister, Felicia, saw me teach at Lakeland Community College’s Entrepreneurship Academy last week and on the way home she said,...
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Newsletter – “Deploying Resources” by Tim McCarthy

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

The first step to creating a more effective organization is determining how to deploy your resources. There are no exceptions. Consider the following: A restaurant has 50 menu items with...
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Newsletter: Decide Democratically, Implement Dictatorially

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

Planning and implementing are different disciplines; good employers are not good listeners 24/7; a business year consists of three months of strategic planning and nine months of disciplined execution. Decide...
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Newsletter: Balancing the Three-legged Stool

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

All great businesses and organizations are built on three legs which must be equally balanced 1. decision rights, 2. incentives and 3. measurements. [more] In MBA school a few years...
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Newsletter – “An Irresistible Offer” by Tim McCarthy

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

It was 1988 and I was out of a job. And I was running out of time to provide for my young family of five. When I told people I’m...
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May Newsletter: “Lessons Lived”

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

Author’s Note: These short stories wind up a 12-part series exploring the lessons I’ve learned in building a foundation. I realized in writing these twelve articles that I’m not embarrassed...
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May Article: “Long-Term Bull and Bear Markets” by Alex Shahidi

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

Editor’s Note: The following article, written by Alex Shahidi and passed on to me by my partner, Jake Crocker, is an interesting take on long-term secular trends in the U.S....
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March Case Study: The Great Little Box Company, Vancouver, BC

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

Editor’s Note: The company referenced in the article below “Investing in the Bottom of the Ladder,” by Jody Heymann, demonstrates that for-profit companies can do better by paying and treating...
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Boomerang
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Boomerang

By Michael Lewis

October 15, 2019

Editor’s Note: This irreverent “journey through the new Third World” by Lewis is at once vastly entertaining and concerning. Within the past year or so, he visits Iceland, Ireland, Greece,...
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“List Power” by Tim McCarthy

By Tim McCarthy

October 15, 2019

The most underutilized asset of ANY organization is their database. Usually when I say this, my audience looks at me like, “I thought your introduction said you were a Madison...
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June Quote:

October 15, 2019

"You've got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction." Alvin Toffler
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Poke the Box

By Seth Godin

October 15, 2019

Editor’s Note: Seth’s first popular book, “Permission Marketing” was a guide for me as we ramped WorkPlace Media into a national permission database media. I’ve since enjoyed “Purple Cow” particularly...
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January Quote: Sun Tzu

October 15, 2019

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu
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Sycamore set to take $1 billion out of Staples | Adam Lewis

By Tim McCarthy

April 25, 2019

Editor’s Comment: My good friend, Ron DeMattia of Corporate Value Partners sent me this article. It’s more data for the series of discussions he and I have had about the M&A...
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