Terry Starbucker

NOVEMBER 25, 2012

“Wow, they would walk through a brick wall for that guy!” I’ve heard this sentence a few times in my career, spoken about great leaders I have known and respected. I’ve even uttered it myself on a couple of occasions. It’s one of the highest complements a leader can get, because of its underlying connotation – that person is an uppercase LEADER.

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Team Collins Leadership Active Listening 392

Terry Starbucker

MARCH 4, 2012

“Just get it done” I was 16, and working in a gas station. A customer had come in to get his flat tire fixed. It was a busy day, and my boss was busy handling other customers, so he told me to fix the tire. The trouble was, I had very little experience doing that, and I especially feared the machine that took the tire off the rim – I had merely one chance to watch someone do it a week or two before.

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Learning-by-Doing Definition Follow-up Quality 390

Terry Starbucker

APRIL 22, 2012

“We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.” – Sherry Turkle. We are living in an extraordinary era where digital communications has revolutionized the way we live, work, and play. For those of us old enough to remember a world without “devices” or “portables”, the possession of all that computing power and global reach in the palms of our hands is awe inspiring.

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Leadership Technology Commitment Travel 385

Terry Starbucker

APRIL 15, 2012

For every person that can help you on your way to business (and personal) success, there are many more that can do just the opposite – serve as big barriers that make the task that much more challenging. There are three people in particular that you need to be wary of, because you WILL encounter them along the way. One you will see EVERY DAY.

Succession 382

Succession Letter How To Content 382

Terry Starbucker

AUGUST 5, 2012

The world’s collective eyes have been focused on the Olympic Games in London this past week, and as I watched these awesome athletes compete, there was one group that particularly “grabbed” me this time – the gymnasts. This is one of the most popular categories in the entire competition, because of the sheer athleticism on display, and the high drama that’s generated by the razor-thin margins between victory and defeat.

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Webinar Class Execution Video 375

Terry Starbucker

AUGUST 12, 2012

Leaders have to “be” many things, and a lot of them are seemingly contradictory - paradoxes that hover over our daily decisions and interactions. How we deal with these paradoxes can be the difference between good and great. There are six in particular that need some keen navigation: 1) Process vs. Innovation – On the surface this looks more like a huge battle; the free thinking forces that love chaos and drive change, against the system-driven processors who thrive on order a

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Webinar Leadership Innovation Objective 370

Terry Starbucker

DECEMBER 9, 2012

It was 1987 - I had just arrived in Los Angeles to start my new job as the VP of Operations for a cable TV company. This job was a big leap for me, given that my previous position was an auditing manager at an accounting firm. I’ll never forget that first day, walking into my new office and being suddenly thrust into the role of “leader” I’m sure many people noted the slight trembling in my voice that day as I jumped into the pool headfirst, shuffling budgets and rear

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Mentor Download Budgeting Learning-by-Doing 369

Terry Starbucker

JANUARY 22, 2012

Growing up in the 60′s and 70′s I was utterly fascinated by the US Space Program, and its corps of courageous astronauts. They were my childhood heroes, and I still vividly remember that night in July of 1969 when I ran outside moments after Neil Armstrong uttered that famous “one small step” line and stared at the moon, utterly captivated by the notion that a man was walking on it at that very moment.

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Armstrong Leadership Quality Career 357

Terry Starbucker

AUGUST 19, 2012

Today I came across something that really it home with me – it was a New York Times interview of James P. Hackett , the CEO of furniture-maker Steelcase. In it he told the story of how he met hotel magnate Bill Marriott back in 1994. He said, “As we were talking about strategy, I remember being struck by the look in his eyes as he talked.

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Self-aware Hotels Bond CEO 351

Terry Starbucker

JULY 1, 2012

There are times when a leadership vacuum can sneak up on you and your organization, one that can quickly erase all the hard work and success that preceded it. It’s helpful to know and understand what I consider to be the nine telltale signs that leadership is headed into this black hole, so quick remedial action can be taken before it’s too late.

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Leadership Bond Morale Strategy 350

Terry Starbucker

SEPTEMBER 9, 2012

It’s September, and for sports fans that means the NFL season is starting, and the Major League Baseball pennant races are heating up as they head to the postseason. Since I’m one of those fans, I find myself reading the sports pages first this time of year, and recently I discovered one of the best (and most concise) leadership lessons I’ve ever come across in a piece written in the New York Times by Bill Pennington.

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Team Sports Metrics Mentor 349

Terry Starbucker

FEBRUARY 19, 2012

“We live in a cynical world. A cynical world.” – Jerry Maguire. There are lot of skeptics out there, especially in the workplace, and who can blame them? Over the course of a working life, how many times have we been let down by our leaders – for promises not kept, changes that are never made, money that is never spent, or raises that never come ?

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Long-term Morale Policies Operations 346

Terry Starbucker

DECEMBER 16, 2012

We all have them – those annoyances that really gnaw at us, (affectionately) known as pet peeves. Most are petty and not worth much time or deep discussion. (Here’s a good example – I once had a boss that would fly into a rage if we used smooth paper clips instead of ridged ones. Never quite understood the problem, but after a couple of chew outs you can bet I stuck with the ridged ones.).

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Succession CEO Course Examples 341

Terry Starbucker

JUNE 3, 2012

“Things change.” Yes, they do. And leaders who fail to absorb this concept into their core being are perfect candidates to be left behind the pack in a cloud of business dust. As change happens, we must change. We must adapt to new technologies, new theories, new business models, new people and attitudes – sometimes within weeks, or even a day.

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Leadership Collins Competitive Advantage Wilde 340

Terry Starbucker

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

(Note: While I’m at SOBCon NW this weekend, I wanted to repeat one of my favorite past posts (from June of 2009), that is also featured in my free e-book “ Leadership From a Glass Half-Full “ ). After doing something for 27 years, you’d think that you could figure it all out and know how to “do” it really, really well, and gain fulfillment too.

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Learning-by-Doing Sports Conference Objective 334

Terry Starbucker

JUNE 10, 2012

Starbucker Graduates, 1982. Dear Business School Graduates of 1982: Congratulations! It’s graduation time, and I always get a bit nostalgic this time of year, remembering my good old days at college. For me, college was this cool utopia, where I had all the trappings of adulthood, but not quite all the responsibility that came with it. The professors tried to teach us as much as they could about business and #leadership, and in turn, I tried to absorb as much as I could.

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Business Simulation Learning-by-Doing Case Study Influence 329

Terry Starbucker

JANUARY 8, 2012

A few weeks ago at Portland State University’s Digital Media Conference, I was challenged to present “9 Ways Social Media Can Make You a Better Leader”, in the “Ignite” format (that’s 20 slides in 5 minutes, each one changing over every 15 seconds, whether you are ready for the change or not). It was a great experience, and thanks to PSU, I’m happy to share the result (here is the link if you don’t see the embed: [link] Lead well!

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Media Video Conference 329

Terry Starbucker

JULY 8, 2012

I was 5 years old, and I already wanted to be a grown up. Grown ups were cool – they did grown up things with grown up toys. So, at 5, I already was trying to imitate my parents, “playing house”, imagining myself behind the wheel of my Hot Wheels sports car, putting on one of my dad’s ties, and even sampling a couple of spirits from the liquor cabinet (that didn’t work out too well!).

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Sample Metrics Sports Career 326

Terry Starbucker

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

I recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of my entry into the business world – I still remember that day in 1982, when, fresh out of college, I walked through the door of Ernst & Whinney in San Antonio, Texas, and started my journey to the place where I now sit and write this post, in Portland, Oregon. It’s been a great ride, full of twists, turns, surprises, thrills, chills, great success, gut-checking failures, and yep, fun.

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Succession Leadership Morale Mentor 325

Terry Starbucker

MAY 27, 2012

Here’s the scene: A 33 year-old man sits in his small office in a converted horse barn somewhere in rural Virginia, staring at a yellow legal pad. He’s bored, disillusioned, and borderline depressed. Three years prior to this moment he moved 3,000 miles on a promise of great opportunity, but alas, the opportunity did not materialize. Rather, it was a move to oblivion, “working” on a project that did not exist, and for a man who ruled by fear and ridicule (especially in front of other peopl

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Leadership Learning-by-Doing Career Tips 320

Terry Starbucker

JUNE 24, 2012

You’ve framed your vision, set your strategy, built your model, hired your team, designed your processes, set expectations, and pushed confidently forward on executing your path to success. And yet, there’s one last thing that you need to do to get it all to true greatness. It’s gut check time. How do you really FEEL about this road you’re on?

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Leadership Energy Quality Project 319

Terry Starbucker

DECEMBER 23, 2012

It’s that time for reflection – on the year that is about to pass, and what’s to come in the year ahead. I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership lately, because I’m in the middle of writing a book about leadership that I hope to publish in 2013 (stay tuned on this!). What I’m realizing through this deep dive in my cranium is that leadership should never be a “static” thing.

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Open-book Leadership Learning-by-Doing CEO 316

Terry Starbucker

APRIL 29, 2012

Like many others here in Portland I’ve been increasing my consumption of a certain vegetable – one that has magical powers. “It’s a superfood!”, the stores proclaim. Low calorie, low fat, high in essential vitamins and minerals, etc, etc, etc… That’s all good, quite good in fact, but there’s one big problem with it.

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Leadership Company Succession Power 316

Terry Starbucker

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Every business has a natural “pulse” of activity that is designed to match the human rhythm of the calendar. Savvy leaders know how to leverage this pulse to their best advantage by properly sequencing their analysis, interaction, thinking, discussing, deciding, and doing. For them, each day of the business week has an overarching theme, designed to maximize team effectiveness: Monday: “Absorb & Process” The first day of the business week should not be spent in mee

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Download Sharpe Leadership Analysis 314

Terry Starbucker

OCTOBER 21, 2012

“How did you KNOW it was a success?” I asked that question several times last week in a forum that I participated in with a group of business people. We were trading best practices about process and training initiatives that had been considered “successful” I have a problem with using that kind of word without some facts to back it up.

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Management Report Education Participative 312

Terry Starbucker

JULY 15, 2012

“There are two kinds of people in the business world, doers and thinkers. Which one will you be?” I was 27 when I was asked this question by my first boss, a very successful serial entrepreneur. He was a very impatient person, and didn’t like extended debate and discussion about big decisions. He just made them- like the time a couple of years later when he determined what to bid on a billion dollar acquisition in about 20 minutes ( no misprint, it was 20 minutes ).

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Analysis Learning-by-Doing Entrepreneur Review 303

Terry Starbucker

MARCH 11, 2012

(Terry’s Note: This is the latest in a series of posts written by guest writer Adam Tenenbaum , called Front Line Leadership. Adam is currently right in the middle of his leadership journey, overseeing a large staff at a very successful retail operation. He also has previous leadership experience at other prominent companies. His primary focuses have been talent selection, employee engagement, and leadership development.).

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Goal Price Energy Commitment 302

Terry Starbucker

JULY 29, 2012

The decision’s been made, and now, as a leader, you are anxious to start executing. After all, time is money, and the competition never rests. The pressure is on. At those moments there’s a natural tendency to immediately start forging ahead – after all, YOU are all up to speed on the vision, the plan, and now, the strategies and tactics that will be needed to get to the mountaintop.

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Tactics Fashion Metrics Planning 298

Terry Starbucker

JUNE 17, 2012

(Writers note: It’s ironic that this post about embarrassment was the first one in 7 years where I hit the “publish” button prematurely. Apologies to my RSS feed readers for the “blank” post yesterday). It was December 16th, 1993, my 34th Birthday. I was in suburban Washington DC, working for a certain professional football team that was looking to build a new stadium.

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Audience Letter Career Definition 296

Terry Starbucker

APRIL 1, 2012

You can save money AND increase customer satisfaction. You can make higher profits AND create an awesome customer retention machine. Just by asking customers 5 simple questions (And of course, writing down, sorting, trending, and analyzing what you find out). Since I was converted to the indispensable benefits of constantly talking to customers back in 2004, I’ve discovered that this feedback is like gold. .

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ROI Call Center Operations Cost 294

Terry Starbucker

MAY 13, 2012

I remember the first time I became a leader. I was in eighth grade, and we were in the middle of tryouts for the upcoming middle-school football season. The previous year I had languished as an unhappy (and very ineffective) left guard, and the team had been winless the past two years – in fact, because we were a private school going against much larger public middle schools, we hadn’t even scored a touchdown the year before.

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Exit Strategy Leadership Bottom-up Letter 293

Terry Starbucker

JULY 22, 2012

I think it’s time we all had a chat. You see, over the last 28 years, you have invaded and then permeated my life in such a subliminal way, that I didn’t even notice that you are now monopolizing my time, and the time of a lot of other people too. And that’s not in a good way. Sure, it was very cool when I first discovered your charms, in my workplace.

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Letter Library Media Blog 291

Terry Starbucker

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

If today’s great leader is known for their humanity and heart, it figures that a big potential weakness for that kind of leader is showing a little TOO much heart. That is, keeping someone as part of the team when it’s clear that they don’t belong. Showing a little compassion is surely a good thing when someone is struggling, because it can be for a wide-variety of reasons, some of which can be corrected.

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Objective Compliance Document Motivation 287

Terry Starbucker

JANUARY 2, 2012

Success is a beautiful thing. We all want it, because it’s the undisputed champion in measuring our professional selves. We know it’s hard to get, and that’s what makes it all the more satisfying. We cherish it, because we know what it’s like to fail (because we all do). So, when it happens, there’s the part of us that wants to strut around like a peacock.

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Collins Document Mentor Definition 287

Terry Starbucker

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

(Note this post was originally published on September 8th, 2006; I’m republishing it today to honor not only the life of Tommy Swift, but the lives of all who perished on 9-11-01). I remember 9/11 and its immediate aftermath like it was yesterday – it was a beautiful late summer morning, and as I was getting my daily latte there was chatter about a plane hitting the World Trade Center.

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ROE Bond Information Books 281

Terry Starbucker

JANUARY 29, 2012

Over the past year here in Portland I’ve been talking to a lot of startup leaders trying to make their fledgling businesses fly, and the image that always comes to my mind when I have these conversations is that of a race car traveling at 200 mph, and getting a tune up at the same time. It’s quite a problem these leaders face, because once the green flag is raised and the business is launched – they can’t pull their business “cars” into the pits, have some wor

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CRM CEO Insurance Advertising 282

Terry Starbucker

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

“Great idea!” the boss exclaims. “But… ” “We’ll need to defer any talk about it until our next meeting, since we have too many other things to cover today” “OK then, next topic, controlling costs in the janitorial department…… ” Ah yes, another idea goes to what I call “ idea limbo “ A place where ideas typically expire, unexplored and under-appreciated.

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Succession Conference Idea Generation Budgeting 280