Three Questions to Gauge Your Strategy Readiness
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
2M ago
At least once a week, I speak with a CEO or board member interested in building a strategic plan. I ask questions to gauge the team's and organization's readiness to take on the complex, transformational work of strategy. At the end of many of these conversations, the leader decides to pause and do some prep work before engaging a consultant to build a new strategy. Are you ready for the work of strategic planning? To help you before making that first call, follow along in our three-part blog series about strategy readiness. In this series, we frame three questions to consider before beginnin ..read more
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Three Things You Need to Know for a Smooth Transition
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
1y ago
What retirees can teach us about big transitions A new year always brings new chapters and newfound enthusiasm to pursue long-time dreams. Each new year, I am reminded of the power of a clean slate for changing habits - as Gretchen Rubin shares in her book Better than Before. In the past few weeks, several former colleagues have reached out to share their career transition plans with me. One friend was laid off after a long career in the same company. Another hasn’t made a move yet but shared her unsettling feeling that there must be something better out there. Some are charging into new chap ..read more
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You’ve Been Designing All Your Life (Copy)
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
1y ago
What if your past life and career have just been a series of prototypes? As a woman over 40, my life is not a clean slate. Even a fresh start, such as a new school year, a new job, or a relationship, is actually just a transition within an existing set of restrictions and circumstances. Things can feel blurry as we move forward without clear steps or markers. The institutions and models that guided us in the past have largely proven false or at least limited. Ask your sisters in arms. Have the traditional models and structures supported us through the past three years of a global pandemic, po ..read more
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Finish 2022 Strong! Try These Two Insightful Tools to Capture a Year’s Worth of Learning
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
1y ago
Solo-preneurs and founders - here is your year-end “retreat” agenda If you are a solopreneur, small team, or founder, you may look longingly at your peers on Instagram as they celebrate 2022 with holiday gatherings, offsites, and retreats. As a team of one (or two), we sometimes feel we are in a fishbowl. That everyone “out there” has it all together. It can be a lonely echo chamber as you close out the year - exhausted, inspired, or somewhere in between. As a new entrepreneur, I glorified the grind culture. I believed that the way to my goals was through brute force. Rest and reflection are ..read more
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Leading and Fostering Loyalty Through a Health Crisis
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
1y ago
As we transition from Breast Cancer Awareness Month to Men’s Health Awareness Month, the topic of working and leading through a health crisis is on my mind. August 2022 marked my eleventh anniversary as a breast cancer survivor. I am struck by how my response to this experience has changed over time. I hope my story and the resources below help you lead through crisis. Three evolutions in my journey: The behaviors that serve us early in a crisis change and mature as we move through our journey. As a lover of marketing, I can’t resist a good archetype! Here are three that describe my evolution ..read more
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Transitions Are a Feature, Not a Bug
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
1y ago
What does done look like when half of your life is spent in transition? The desire for change is not a sign of failure but growth. I am working with several clients resetting their businesses and lives as they emerge from the uncertainty of the past three years. These business and nonprofit leaders are entering new roles and rebuilding their leadership teams. One word keeps repeating in these conversations: "Transition." On the home front, my sisters in arms, working mothers, are launching kids back to school with a satisfied sigh. The sun seems to be peeking through the clouds for working mo ..read more
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Three Mistakes You Are Making In Forming Values and How to Avoid Them
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
1y ago
Engage the whole team to form values tailor-made to your organization Welcome! We are in the midst of a series all about assembling the core components of a solid strategy, beginning with mission, vision, and values. In my last two blog posts, I shared some pitfalls to watch out for when drafting a mission and vision. This month is all about values. When I think about values, I am immediately transported to my dad's office circa 1978. Dad was a traveling salesman and a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. He loved inspiring quotes and always had a poster from Successories in his office. This visibl ..read more
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Good Growth! Three Mistakes to Avoid When Planning Your Growth
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
1y ago
Sometimes, new growth is closer than you think In July and August, I am focusing on good growth: deliberately and intentionally planning the growth of your business. Last month, we encouraged you to gather all ideas into a growth portfolio, compare, and make choices. The simple act of gathering opportunities in one place is worthy of celebration - and more than many organizations do on the regular. In my opinion, the single most important tool of strategy is a pencil. By committing ideas to writing we reduce ambiguity and raise awareness and alignment. In July, I shared several tools for choo ..read more
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Good Growth! Start With These Two Steps To Jumpstart Growth
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
1y ago
Step 1: Kill the zombies Our current business culture sure does glamorize entrepreneurship, scaling and growth. The desire for growth is the trigger that sparks most CEOs and owners to reach out to me for strategy or innovation advice. I believe the current “scale or fail” mindset can actually harm some businesses and the people who work for them. I confess that I have an old-school bias toward the tortoise over the hare. The ant over the grasshopper. Some of my favorite business books are “Good to Great” and “Built to Last” (looking at you, Jim Collins). I try to avoid books with “unicorn” i ..read more
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3 Mistakes You Are Making In Your Mission Statement and How to Avoid Them
Springboard Strategy Blog
by Amy Zehfuss
1y ago
I'd like to promise two things. If you bring me in to facilitate a meeting with your team, I won't ask you to do a trust fall or close your eyes and imagine the future. One thing I will do, however, is ask you to articulate your organization's mission. Creating or revisiting a mission is the starting point of any strategy journey. Let's start with a simple definition of “mission”: A Mission Statement: Describes why an organization exists, its purpose, and its impact. Is written briefly in the form of a sentence or two Articulates a common purpose, cause, or belief Communicates your co ..read more
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