Talk vs. Action: Collectively Admiring the Problem


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The Monday MOVE Idea

Each Monday until the launch of my upcoming book MOVE, I’ll be sharing an important idea from the book. This week: Talk vs. Action: Collectively Admiring the Problem.

Big Goals

Think about the really important goals your team talks about all the time. When you talk about them everyone agrees they are critical. We must improve quality. We must innovate. We must respond to a competitive threat. We must evolve our business model to provide better service.

Talk vs. Action

To move your team from talking about important stuff in a vague way, to actually making progress on these things in a real way, the first step is to realize that you are stuck because you are still only Talking.

It’s vitally important as a leader to recognize when your team is falling into the pattern of accepting smart sounding ideas and inputs instead of measurable forward progress.

The most effective way I have found to break through this is to recognize when you get stuck only talking about the Situation.

Situation Discussions

Sure it’s important to use some time to note and understand the situation, but you can just sense it when everyone has internalized the situation and then … you keep talking about it! Talking and talking and talking about it.

You can feel it in your stomach when the meeting is not going anywhere and you’re still talking. The talk gets smarter and smarter sounding and the forward motion everyone is craving never happens.

Situation discussions are basically: Collectively admiring the problem.

You need to change the nature of the conversation to become one that drives action, instead of just more talking.

I outline the specific steps to do this in MOVE. I’m really excited to share it with you!

Pre-Order MOVE and win a 6 Hour 1-1 Coaching Program with Me

MOVE will be available February 28, but if you pre-order your copy now you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a 6 hour executive coaching program with me. There will be TWO winners!

Click to pre-order and enter.

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I’m really excited to share the important ideas, and all the tools I put in my upcoming book MOVE to help you get your team (at any organizational level) to execute your strategy more decisively.

What do you think?

Join the conversation about this on my facebook page.


About Patty
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Patty Azzarello is an executive, best-selling author, speaker and CEO/Business Advisor. She became the youngest general manager at HP at the age of 33, ran a billion dollar software business at 35 and became a CEO for the first time at 38 (all without turning into a self-centered, miserable jerk)

You can find Patty at www.AzzarelloGroup.com, follow her on twitter or facebook

You can find Patty at www.AzzarelloGroup.com, follow her on twitter or Facebook, or read her books RISE and MOVE.


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