No single factor affects your business more than the decisions you make as CEO or owner. This includes the decision to seek out and hire the best people for your executive team. All too often, however, we don't hire the best talent we can find. We settle. Why?...
Email is a great business tool, one that’s revolutionized the way we communicate in modern times. But it’s also the case – and always worth repeating – that it’s dangerous if not used carefully. For the vast majority of emails, the “tone” of your message should...
Over the past several months I've worked with several CEOs who are coping with situations that have landed their businesses in bad shape. Poor legal planning, a lack of financial control, the failure to adequately incorporate contingency plans into long-range strategies – all these factors...
In order to achieve excellence, you have to demand excellence. When you as CEO or business owner tolerate less than stellar performance from the workforce, you’ll get the level of performance you ask for. I’ve seen this often in organizations, where sloppiness, lack of diligence and...
Peter Schutz, former CEO of Porsche and author of Driving Force, has some great things to say about the decision-making and implementation process. Naturally, he frames it in terms of cars and racing. What happens on race day When planning for an important race, everyone on the...
How many CEOs and business leaders can support the following statement? We work to live, not live to work. Time and again, I see ambitious, driven people putting in 60, 70 or even more hours of work each week. When I see this happening, I always...
Too often, CEOs and business owners running companies don't utilize the brainpower and talents that reside within the organization. As a result, they get limited thinking. Whatever the business, I'm convinced that the people holding the shovel, working the end of the assembly line or inputting data...
Many years ago, I was privileged to hear Dr. Larry King speak on the roles and challenges faced by CEOs. Dr. King is an internationally known speaker and CEO advisor, who has presented more than 1,000 seminars to CEOs on six continents. The man knows...
A lot gets written about corporate culture, but I believe more emphasis should be placed on the CEO or business leader's role in creating and maintaining that culture. Why? Because company culture drives how people within an organization behave. More importantly, culture is what happens when...
As CEOs and business owners, some of your most valuable capital lies in your ability to establish key relationships with others in the business community. These relationships aren't solely (or even primarily) cultivated for the purpose of advancing yourself and your business. People who are great...