Executive Toughness and Focusing on Process

When leading any team to victory, you can’t underestimate the value of strategy or that burning desire to win built deeply within yourself and everyone else on the team.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

While these are the most visible and exciting parts of the story, they represent a very small part of the whole picture.  

Quote: The problem lies in the fact that they are so focused on those results that there is less and less emphasis on the process of what it takes to achieve those results. John Wooden. Book: Executive Toughness by Dr. Jason Selk.

Whether in the military, sports, or business, few failures can truly be attributed to a failure of strategy or the team really not wanting to win bad enough. The book Executive Toughness describes this well.  

Consistently winning comes from rigorous and daily practice of hundreds of details over years.  

The reason behind many of these details will be completely misunderstood by those going through it the first time.  

Craig Mullaney describes this very well in The Unforgiving Minute:  A Soldier’s Education. 

A great coach (or manager) has the stamina to stick with the rigorous training, providing small corrections to the process along the way.


Think of a contracting business like you would a project. Consider a few major outcomes on your scoreboard.

Which one are you the most unhappy with? 

Drill-down on that outcome metric until you have the equivalent of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and can see the Critical Path.




The Best Contracting Methods for Preconstruction Services
Moving seamlessly from preconstruction to construction requires solid contractual documents modified to fit your particular project and structure.
The Cost of Specializaton
Learn the right balance between specialists and generalists. Specialization is great and is what has allowed all of us to continually experience improved lives for generations. However, when taken too far, specialization can become a liability.
Tax Deferral vs Tax Savings
Tax savings are very different than tax deferrals. Too often these are misunderstood by owners leading to negative surprises down the road with the most common being the switch from cash to accrual accounting in the earlier stages of growth.