Blog entries for Dr. Larry Losoncy

Adapt the Game Plan When Getting Beat

Larry Losoncy

a sea change underway all across the world, if we can let ourselves hear it. Some of the components, each mammoth in their own way but also contributing to global change on a scale unlike any others include:

Industrialization of several billion people.Drought encompassing huge parts of the earth and the earth's people.Instant communication as cell phones and internet technology spread virtually everywhere. Climate change on a scale not seen since the twelfth century.Political change.Finan [...]

Executive Leadership Worry Is a Three Dimensional Art

Larry Losoncy

is nothing we can do about the past or the future. Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday. So why waste all that effort? Sufficient for the day are the trials thereof.

Executive leaders, to be any good to their companies and organizations, must indeed worry about the past and the future, not just the present. The company track record is vital for good credit. How that past is documented, protected and presented is a vital dimension of good business. The company's safety recor [...]

Necessity AND Flexibility Are the Mothers of Invention

Larry Losoncy

the business leader must resist the urge to panic, to become overly pessimistic, to behave as though he or she were helpless, or to wait for someone else to do something. Leaders don't get paid for doing nothing. They earn their keep when the chips are down. Right now the chips are down.

Flexibility can make the difference. Just clinging to the way things have always been done amounts to striking a helpless stance in the face of the problems affecting you and your workers.

Flexi [...]

The Four Day Work Week

Larry Losoncy

tices long advocated by unions and supported generally by leaders of the adult education movement. Three consecutive days off from work allows so much more usable time for adults to attend to other dimensions of their lives. Some of these include exercise, social interaction, care of family, involvement with church, leisure pursuits, vacation, recreation, sports and hobbies, community service, and education.

Many people have never found an eight hour five day work week to make sense. The [...]

Insist on Vacations and Short Getaways

Larry Losoncy

aptop filled with vital files. This approach is the equivalent of having one's cake and eating it too. The idea is to enjoy working while at the beach, in the cabin or next to the pool. And then there is the very widespread trend of getting less and less sleep in order to work longer and longer hours each day.

Business owners and managers would do well to insist that these trends be reversed in their workplaces for any number of reasons. Here are some of the reasons.

The human mind [...]

Business Stress Management and Gardens

Larry Losoncy

During the days of World War II when food became scarce and the money to buy food became even more scarce, there were Victory Gardens. Such gardens accomplish three very important results in the management of stress now, just as they did then.

First, gardens provide an outlet for physical release of stress. Physical work is a good way to release pent up stress. Working with plants and getting immersed in the quiet earth has a soothing effect, a centering and calming of the person' [...]

Address the Most Immediate Stress. Today it is Gasoline Prices

Larry Losoncy

ere is the suggestion for a plan of action.

1. Get your people together and do a quick brainstorm. How many people drive to work? How many people are interested to work together to keep the travel bill under control or to lower it?

2. Next: ask for suggestions. What ideas do your employees have to cope with this problem?

3. Next: ask everyone to think and talk about suggestions and strategies between now [...]

When It Comes To Stress The Little Things Get You

Larry Losoncy

odeling and who sometimes provide after-hours part time employment for your workers.

You can help reduce the stress of schedule by encouraging a flexible approach. When workers need to be late, miss half a day because of a school event, or leave early they should know in advance that they have your blessing.

The stress of money woes. Very few workers have too much money! Most can barely make ends meet. With gasoline prices inching towards $4 per gallon half of our country is approac [...]

Business Managers Do Preventive Health Maintenance?

Larry Losoncy

heads off having depressed employees who are tired and low on energy. And if that isn't enough good news, here is more: Since persons who experience increased occurrences of depression are 50% more likely to have heart trouble and diabetes, when you manage stress in the workplace you are helping to prevent two of the nation's top health problems! Make that three of the nation's top health problems: stress promotes cancer!

There are other ways of contributing to good health and [...]

Seven Key Tasks for Business Leaders

Larry Losoncy

ibility is important.

Business leaders could learn a great deal from watching the presidential campaigns and professional baseball.

The presidential campaigns are managed with an eye on each of these seven functions. The gathering and managing of people and money to make the campaigns viable is a work of art based on known principles. That is to say, it is both art and science. Chaotic as political campaigns appear to the naked eye, with people running helter skelter and the phones ringi [...]

Leader or Manager?

Larry Losoncy

that decisions are made by the people closest to the situation. A simple example is in ordering office supplies. The clerk in charge of that has more knowledge about supply use and frequency than the president of the company does. So the clerk should make the decisions about when and how much to reorder.

It is important that the right decisions are made. How do you make good decisions and avoid making bad ones? There is no sure method. It takes practice and re [...]

Is Consensus the Absence of Leadership?

Larry Losoncy

the company: what is the business plan? These decisions must be accepted and implemented by the work force, the customer, the vendors and all the other people associated with the business, no matter what opinions and viewpoints to the contrary. For a business to succeed, once a decision is reached everyone needs to move on and do their best to implement the decision.

The true test of a business leader, therefore, is twofold. First, the leader must make good decisions. As the saying goes, g [...]

Why Executive Leadership Training?

Larry Losoncy

comes the outstanding communicator. The person who worked hard to become proficient at planning becomes an exceptionally gifted planner. Why? Because training promotes reflection and focuses on learning from experience: your experience and that of others. Experience is the best teacher.

Reason #3: comparisons and motivation

Trainings allow the participants to measure themselves against their peers. When you are the number one person in your company, division or department you have no [...]

Honesty: One Dimension of Character in Business Leadership

Larry Losoncy

ead to trust that what you say is the way it is. You will also want all those associated with your business, whether customers, clients, vendors, creditors, board members, colleagues, regulators - no matter who might in any way deal with you or the business - to know that when you communicate you are telling the truth.

It all sounds so simple. But to achieve honesty in business requires a great deal of thought and composure. For example, before imparting information to anyone you must [...]

There are Leaders and There are Leaders

Larry Losoncy

any genuine vision towards the future makes the would-be leader a manager, a boss, a supervisor but not a leader. Leading others towards the goals embodied in a vision is very different than acting.

It is easy for professional actors to act the part of a leader. That is also true in real life business and organizational matters. It is easy to strike the pose of a leader and to go through the motions of leadership. In fact, those whose jobs make it easy for them to pose as leaders can [...]

The Leader in Hard Times

Larry Losoncy

devastation as far as the eye of the camera can see. Often enough the footage is accompanied with blood-curdling forecasts and warnings.

Human beings react to economic news with a certain amount of worry. But let the wind blow out a window in their home and their distress becomes much more intense, instantly! It is one thing to be told that the economy might crater but quite another to be told the neighborhood will be under six feet of water by this evening!

It just so happens [...]

The new Backyard Fence: Executive Coaching

Larry Losoncy

oNormal"> “The Boss” can include the roles of public relations stance, chief spokesperson, the one who encourages everyone else, chief negotiator, master strategist, leader of the Board, security blanket for members or stockholders, the face of the company to the public, the peacemaker, the visionary, and so on with nearly any function others insist upon. For example, the press can simply state that a CEO is the spokesperson when reporting words from the CEO. Workers can simply [...]

Good Routines Beat Good Resolutions

Larry Losoncy

nt task.

Red alerts: what MUST be accomplished today and by whom? Write this down on a bulletin board or other highly visible posting place for all to see all day long.

Kudos: post kudos for great accomplishments from the previous workday.

Schedule: review your personal schedule for appointments, conference calls and any other commitments.

Payroll: always do it on the same day or days of the month and at the same time of day.

Memos to Board: once again, same day or [...]

Surviving the Holidays: Advice to the Business Manager

Larry Losoncy

as time for many years, or so it seems.

Behind the merry happy scenes are worries, many of which run to economics. Families find Christmas financially dangerous. Spending goes up and work hours often go down. Businesses struggle with the broken schedules, uncertain deliveries and unpredictable shopping patterns. Retailers watch a huge percentage of their annual sales hanging in the balance during November and December. Business managers brace for the worst when it comes to employee de [...]

Business Plans Are Stress Savers

Larry Losoncy

stor considering a loan, credit line or investment in the business. That means the business plan will need to be tweaked with applications to each funding source. Tweaking takes time and, once again, attention to many little details. In other words, there is no perfect business plan format universally accepted.

It would be a mistake to consider the development and updating of business plans as wasted time. A good business plan is far more useful to you in the management of your busine [...]