Mark was faced with difficult alternatives. The city had given notification that the street in front of his coffee shop would be closed for nine months as a new rail service was installed. Most of his customers were walk-ins, which meant his business would be virtually shut down for nine months!

In some instances, time can be your friend as you adjust to a loss or recover from grief. But usually, when it comes to your business, time is not your friend. Mosses wrote, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12 NIV). Wise words!

A key factor for business leaders is to determine situations when time is not your friend and then to take quick, appropriate action. Consider these examples:

Teamwork is one of the most talked about yet poorly executed concepts in business. When some leaders say they want to build teamwork, what they really mean is that they want to get everybody to do exactly what they say. Effective teamwork will occur only with effective leadership.

Change will impact every business. Often we look to the next big stroke, a jump in technology, or a future event. Change, however, often happens slowly, developing over time, providing an opportunity for us to understand that change and react before we get passed by.

Every leader creates ideas, and many of those ideas have the potential the pay great dividends. The key is to move beyond the idea stage and create action that turns those ideas into reality. "There are many . . . empty talkers," wrote the apostle Paul (Titus 1:10, NASB), and in business today, we all know people who talk a good game but never get the job done. But you don't have to be one of those people. By following several simple steps, you can learn how to turn good ideas into effective action.