Stick to your core

Sondra Lehman
president and COO, LSG Sky Chefs — North America

Michael McQuay
president, Bombardier Flexjet, Skyjet and Aircraft Services

With so many different things that you
have to keep juggling in the air as a
leader, it’s important to not become so
focused on those items that you forget
why you’re juggling in the first place.

“It’s about picking up one marble at a
time,” says Michael McQuay, president of
Bombardier Flexjet, Skyjet and Aircraft
Services, our July cover subject. “It’s
about a focus and keeping the basics of
your business in mind.”

One of the most essential basics to keep
in mind is knowing who you are as a company. Instead of chasing every opportunity that comes your way, Sondra Lehman,
our November cover subject, says it’s
important to use your core as a way of
evaluating opportunities to pursue.

“You have to take the blinders off,”
says Lehman, president and COO of
LSG Sky Chefs — North America.
“Look at what you’re doing and how it
could be used in a very different way. If
you look at what your core competency
is and see how it could apply to a very
different market or industry, a lot of
them are obvious.”

By sticking to the basic core model of
what you do and remembering other
business basics, you’ll be more successful over the long term.

“Over the years, most businesses that
have had real difficulty have tried to grasp
the brass ring without doing the hard
work that’s necessary to get there,”
McQuay says. “People look at wanting to
hit a home run in business, and it’s not
about a home run — it’s about doing the
basics. It’s the hit and run, laying down
the bunt, not making errors in the field. If
you focus on the basics and the little
things, you have a tendency to have a better opportunity to be successful with the
big things.”