Recent Articles from Todd Ordal
Business leaders need to watch out for woodpeckers
As a leader in an organization — particularly those who lead a company with other people’s money in play, public or private — you have a fiduciary obligation to watch out for woodpeckers.
How to deal with inconvenient truths
Alignment of your team and your investments is the quickest path to success. But you need to make sure that you are not ignoring the truth just because you are emotionally attached to that path.
Why CEOs need to ask good questions — and listen to the answers
Leaders and managers are paid to find answers. Ready, fire, aim is preferable to ready, aim, aim, aim. Speed is a tactical advantage. But combine the need for answers with speed, and sloppy thinking often results.
People or strategy? Proceed with caution!
People before strategy sounds warm and fuzzy, but if you need a bus driver, you don’t hire a well-meaning barista.
Make it a great day, but please put some thought into it!
If you’re heading to the office this morning with thoughts of “overcoming” and have no plan, I suggest you turn around, go home, have another cup of coffee and work out a method.
How to create an inspired team
The person who combines technique with inspiration will eclipse the leader who only relies on technique ― every dang time! Can you learn inspiration? I don’t think so. But can you find it?
YETI Is cool, but can it remain hot?
When competition reaches the same level of performance at half the price, will YETI respond by increasing the existing products’ capability?
The top 10 business mistakes I’ve made
A client read one of my blogs where I 'fessed up to something stupid that I’d done and suggested I create a top 10 list, so here it is. This was an extremely difficult exercise because I had so many to choose from!
When was the last time you tried your own dog food?
Too many executives don’t eat their own dog food. Unless you experience your product or service from the customers’ perspective, you probably have a rosy view of what you’re offering.
Crossing the T: Battleship strategy for business
The fleet that has “crossed,” however, can fire all weapons at Ship 1 then 2 then 3, etc. It has at least six times the firepower. I can draw two business lessons from this military strategy. Perhaps you’ll have more.
Wells Fargo ignored the single most important question
Regulators recently pinched Wells Fargo, the country’s largest bank, for “scamming” some customers. Lots of folks have already predictably jumped all over management, and they’re right to do so. But what else can we learn from this?
Leaders need to consider how best to communicate
We might all agree that using too many words to make a point is imprudent and prone to irritate others. We should differentiate, however, between verbosity, frequency and efficacy.