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Recent Articles from Todd Ordal
Big moves: Six steps for a hard right turn
Sometimes, an organization is either looking for significant enhancements to their growth rate or knows what worked for them in the past is not going to cut it going forward.
Three questions to figure out what's next
I’d run a large division with 7,000 people, but this was different. It was not just about execution; it was about the ideas that had to be executed, the team that had to do it and my specific role.
Trust your gut
Entrepreneurs in startup situations don’t have a large team of people to help make decisions. They probably don’t have a well-developed, systematic approach to vet ideas. They need to trust their gut.
Three great tips to accelerate success
Although leaders frequently engage me to help them find a shortcut of some sort—to more effective leadership, to a better strategy, to a more highly functioning team—we rarely find a solution that involves little work. Shortcuts to wealth are generally illegal. Shortcuts to leadership are typicall...
Aim high, shoot low
I’ve too often come across a business whose leaders chose a strategy of “me too” with no discernable difference between what they do and what their competitors do. A friend who just purchased a business with a well-known local brand told me that a gregarious founder built it but a “bean counter” p...
HUMINT or SIGINT?
I still want to be a spy. I’m 58, but I’m pretty sure that a recruiter from some clandestine government agency will call soon and teach me how to take out a bad guy with a clothespin. I guess I read too many spy novels. The old-school spies in the books I love best focus on “HUMINT” (human intelli...
Four ways to lead out of a tangled mess
On the way home from a fishing trip, I thought about the lessons you can learn with a fly rod in your hand and how they might apply to business.
Optimize for Millenials?
Unless you just crawled out of the primordial ooze, you’ve heard a lot about how you must optimize your business to make Millennials happy. Coddling, free time and pet-happy policies are mentioned often. What to do?
The fine line between confidence and hubris
I admit to having an affinity for aw-shucks people. I’ve met combat veterans who aren’t fond of attention and will tell you they were just doing their job-- of getting shot at to protect you and me.
You can't have it all
Whoever said you can have it all either had a small wish list or a small capacity for reason. “You can have it all” has two different sources, greed or fear. Neither is healthy.
The dangers of extreme zoom
I recently met with a prospective client and his team about their organizational challenges. One team member repeatedly talked about a “solution set” he used in a different company.
Mistakes: The good and the bad
There’s a difference between wanting to win and not tolerating failure. Sore losers are usually no fun to be around and often have issues that go back to Mommy and Daddy. Gracious and competitive people want to win, but their self-esteem isn’t tightly wrapped up in it. Wouldn’t it be great if we d...
