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SMART Leadership is now Leadership Breakthroughs

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A Re-Branded Blog

This blog now has a new name.  SMART Leadership is now Leadership Breakthroughs.

The History

I’ve referenced the SMART acronym (a goal setting criteria) on blogs since 2003.  Beginning with Working SMART and later on this site, p.k.a. SMART Leadership.  The title framed content that supported our business of leadership development through executive coaching.  Goal achievement skills have been and remain an important part of leadership coaching.  But there’s so much more.

Not So Smart

Plus, there are a lot of so-called leaders who have frustrated followers by misusing the SMART concept by arbitrarily handing down unattainable goals  and demanding compliance.  Their force-fed, frustrated followers want to run away and hide with the mere mention of the acronym.  Shameful misuse of authority.

Communicating An Outcome vs. Activity

As Chicago Executive Coaching evolved, I discovered a common thread connecting the most successful engagements:  Clients’ results come from breakthroughs.  Their ah-ha moments lead to positive change in attitudes, behaviors, skills and focus.  By listening to readers’ feedback, I learned that posts on this site have also led to breakthroughs.

Why Change?

SMART Leadership was a nice enough name.  But there’s an important marketing principle that service providers too often forget:

People aren’t buying your service.

They’re really buying what the service will do for them.

Why not communicate an outcome? The title Leadership Breakthroughs strives to do just that.  Creating breakthroughs through both thought leadership and effective coaching is a really important deliverable.

Leadership BreakthroughsRaising The Bar

The goal for creating and sharing content is more about creating moments of discovery that in-turn stimulate positive change. It’s less about goal setting tools for leaders.  Here is what you can continue expect from Leadership Breakthroughs:
  • Challenges to your thinking and traditional actions and approaches
  • Entertainment for the purpose of enlightenment: It’s healthy to laugh at ourselves.
The simple change: the content is framed with a more appropriate title. One that reflects our purpose:

Facilitating Breakthroughs for Leaders

This re-branding resulted from improving clarity of purpose.  How’s yours?

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Clarity of Purpose Resources

Kevin Wq? encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0974052523&Format= SL160 &ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=chicaexecuc0b 20. McCarthy’s book, The On-Purpose Business Person: Doing More Of What You Do Best More Profitably, is a short, easy reading parable that outlines a simple framework for holistic strategic thinking and planning.  It’s helped me to help others to crystallize and articulate the essence of their service model by understanding what happens for customers when you serve at higher levels.For those who are not leading an organization’s strategic direction, he wrote: The On-Purpose Person: Making Your Life Make Sense.  Since self leadership precedes formal leadership, perhaps the personal one is the prerequisite.ir?t=chicaexecuc0b 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0974052523

One Response

  1. Tom,
    This is interesting. Many years ago I noticed success on the projects I was engaged were precipitated by a breakthrough of some kind. I developed a file of “Breakthrough Events” that I caused or participated in coupled with the successful result. I use this as talking points in presenting myself for new engagements.

    20 years ago my Breakthrough Event” was discovering that discussing Breakthrough Events is key to my marketing and sales.

    Happy Easter!

    Best…Scott (Scooter)

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