Who is on your short list of successors? As a CEO, if you’re not sure of the answer to that question, you are placing your organization at significant risk. While it’s all too easy to think our tenure will last forever and there’s no one good enough to take our place, the ego must be Read More >
Past Executive Briefings
How to be a Visionary Leader
What makes a great leader? Is it the way a person takes charge of projects? Or is it the way a person leads teams? Many find the integral qualities that make a great leader are more than the sum of these. Today’s great leader has several traits — organizational skills, excellent people management and confidence. Read More >
Combat the Small Business Time Wasters
A Salary.com employee survey in 2013 found that 69 percent of those responding said they regularly wasted time at work. Time is money for a small business. Quit losing money by identifying and eliminating those major time wasting tasks. Use these suggestion to streamline your operations, educate your staff and get everyone focused on that vision of Read More >
The Ethical CEO – Redux 2014
Do CEOs care how history will judge them? Do they care if they leave a positive legacy, one where employees, customers and the community at large remember them with respect and admiration? The following is a reprint of the article I wrote for CEO – Chief Executive Officer back in 2010. I’m reprinting it because Read More >
How a Grateful Attitude Can Improve Your Effectiveness
When asked the question, “How good is your company at showing thanks/recognition to its employees?” more than half of those surveyed believe they do a great job. A very significant percentage of their employees, however, would beg to differ. And, much of that is due to the fact that companies (as a generalization) do not Read More >
Aspirational Leadership: How a Good Leader Becomes Great
What makes a great leader? Why do employees gravitate toward people like Steve Jobs while other leaders struggle to gain a following? A significant amount comes from personality—outgoing, likeable people with strength of character naturally attract others. But another very significant factor is one’s beliefs and values. These take many shapes and can include, for Read More >
Leader or Manager: What Is Your Personality Fit?
John and Sara work at company XYZ. John has a great group of people working for him. Sara also has a great group of people working with her. More often than not, John’s people achieve their deliverables on schedule while Sara’s team has received several awards for projects that have come in on schedule and Read More >
5 Things a CEO Should Never Do
“How to be a CEO.” It’s a popular Google search phrase. So much so, in fact, there are about 1,130,000,000 results (yes, that’s billions). The abundance of articles, blogs, infographics, and tweets about seeing, becoming, and conquering it as a CEO are overwhelming at best. The truth, however, is this: if you’re searching this topic, Read More >
Listening: The Attribute Every CEO Must Possess
Large and in charge. That’s the persona of the average CEO. They are the eloquent ones, with the power to reach and move others. Some might even be called good communicators. Yet, this may be an inaccurate moniker. After all, effective communication means more than just talking. It means listening, too; and often better than Read More >
Effective Leaders are Natural Risk Reducers
Risk avoidance is a natural, daily function of the CEO, business owner and entrepreneur. After all, as Investopedia defines it, you’re the “highest ranking executive…whose main responsibilities include developing and implementing high-level strategies, making major corporate decisions, [and] managing the overall operations and resources of a company…” By definition, you are responsible for the organization’s overall health, Read More >