Definitions
from Christos Kartalis

 

  • “Envelop pushers” are people who do only their part and don’t see things to conclusion. For them, it is always someone else’s job.
  • “Conclusion jumpers” are people who take action or come to a conclusion without proper analysis. Usually, this leads to superficial output and biased outcomes.

More Definitions

  • “Versus.” This is one of the most powerful words in business. It translates data to information. The more “versus” there are, the better the information you have to work with.
  • “Jungle Street Smart.” Keep your eyes and ears open at all times and in all situations.
  • A keyword is business is “out,” as in outpacing, outwitting, out-edging.
  • “Exercising” is when companies go through endless reviews, analyses, or discussions with no beginnings and no ends.  Exercising is not decision-making.
  • Moving from PowerPoint to Excel is moving from theory to execution.
  • Picasso defined competitive intelligence as “good artists borrow, great artists steal”. In business, this is called “benchmarking.”
  • Productivity is equal to output divided by input times speed.
  • “Surface Managers” are managers who don’t dig deeply into matters but prefer to deal with issues at the surface level. This means missing opportunities both in terms of identifying bigger/wider opportunities and identifying deeper-rooted problems.
  • “Ball pickers” are the employees who pick up the balls others let fall.
  • “A management bus” should not stop often to change drivers, pickup and discharge passengers, or receive directions from the control station. A bus should be running like a bullet from start until it reaches its destination.
  • As in soccer, great manages should operate always as if it is always the 88th minute of the game and they need to score.
  • “One day visa holders” are those managers who go to an overseas location for a short period, assuming they know everything going in and coming out, usually without accomplishing either.
  • Managers should not make “decisions in slices.” When managers do not make big, one time decisions but make multiple, smaller decisions they think will lead to the same objective, they lose time and make inefficient decisions.
  • “Election Day”–great managers set optimum deadlines for everything.
  • “Smiling Losers”: it will happen; you will lose, and when you do, your sweat, tears, and blood should be evident. If you are smiling after losing a battle, it just might mean you haven’t given it enough effort.
  • “Playing office”: people who make themselves busy around a project without any sense of accomplishment or closure are just “playing office”.
  • “Blind cowboys” come out firing left and right without aiming.
  • “Earth shaking impacts” are the highest we can shoot for…
  • “Armies without a war” is when managers mobilize teams left and right, with everything apparently urgent and critical without any sense of purpose, energy, or direction.
  • “Closed windows” stifle negotiations. When you are negotiating, leave windows available to give you flexibility to get out of an issue or get back in.
  • “Hit-and-runners” are people who jump from discussion to discussion and project to project without having achieved anything worthwhile.
  • “Fasten your seat belt”: moving from strategy to execution must be a moving experience.
  • “Holy” people believe they know everything about every situations and every person all of the time.
  • “Sad winners” are people who don’t enjoy a win or take a minute off to celebrate it; usually they don’t know how to win at all.
  • “Speakers of Parliament” are people who speak like politicians and usually perform like them.
  • “What the hell?” Once in a while, you need to take the crazy option to achieve your goal in business or to push back when you are pushed.
  • “Premeditated coincidences” are often created by great managers.
  • “Vacationers” are people who just came back from or are about to go on a vacation, long weekend, or some celebration. They always say, “I just came back from … I’ll look at it later” or “I am going to …. Let me look at it when I come back.” Work is less important than the vacations, which is a reason for postponing things.
  • “God bless!”: Some items are so over-analyzed or so late in coming to fruition that only God can help them materialize.
  • “Vested interests” are what managers should have in their business to drive it right.
  • “Warriors and painters”–each has a specific job… please.
  • “Philosophers” are people who have ideas and opinions about everything… but not necessarily worthwhile ones.
  • “Gazers” are people who live are on the sidelines, just observing.
  • Test your “PowerPoint dreams” on Excel before you commit resources to them.
  • “Exitless mental masturbation” overanalyses, and over-verifies without taking any steps forward.
  • “Christopher Columbus” is not a role model for business! Ensure the ship can sail all the way to your destination and everything back home can run on automatic while you are gone.
  • A “Christopher Columbus without balls” is one who claims ready to travel anytime, anyplace, under any conditions but calls in sick when the boat is ready to depart from port.
  • If you are not a “Shoe Shiner,” don’t share strong opinions about shoe shining; at least not before you let the real shoe shiners speak up.
  • “Hilton.” If you believe you are an elite performer, you need to perform consistently at elite level as expectations will also be… elite.