Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Great managers love a great challenge. They will look at the company they own or division they work in, and they see a puzzle that needs to be solved and understand that it's a living puzzle, not a puzzle like you buy in a box and put together and it is finished. Rather it is a puzzle that can move, shift, shrink, enlarge and always try to get away from you.

People that love to manage love this challenge of an organic, living puzzle that faces them day to day.

Great managers also know that it is never about the money and profits. What? It's really not. Money and profits are only that which keeps score in what it is you're attempting to accomplish. This is why so many companies struggle because they think that looking at the money and profits side is that which will produce what's needed. It can never be the end goal of what you're after. Now if it isn't producing well for you over the long haul, the lack of money and profits is simply that which tells you you're not doing it right and you're missing something. Take notice that I said over the long haul, not over a few month period of time like so many publicly owned companies panic over.

Here's another great thing about having your eye on your purpose and not the results; it keeps you from wrongly interpreting what is happening. There are a huge number of companies historically that have had some of their greatest financial successes right before they plunged into failure. It can give a false sense of doing things right. When your company is cash-rich, is when you must be the most careful. Having too much cash on hand can cause leaders in a company to self-destruct because they are looking at the wrong measuring tools and metrics.

It's like in the stock market when you may go through a time of success and quick money. It starts to make you think that you're unbeatable. You don't look at what needs to be improved or look at the mistakes that are being made in spite of your success.

I used to shingle roofs for a living years ago. Those that know how to do it right, always measure as they go up the roof because it is very easy for one side of the roof to get off center. Even if it's off by only a little bit, if it's not measured properly, by the time you get to the top it can be so far off that you wouldn't believe it.

The point is to not determine that your business or department is really healthy based upon the current finances of the company. All that may mean is that you did something right for awhile. That is no guarantee that you're doing it right now. A business isn't something that is static, it is living and moving all the time. Make sure you're looking at the right things as it is.