When it comes to family business succession, the next generation often struggles to maintain the business’ success. In fact, the transfer from Generation One to Generation Two is usually about Why? The reasons run the gamut from the next generation being ill-prepared to lead the company, to the business model becoming dated and no … Continue reading What to Do When Family Doesn’t Want the Business
Last year while working with a management team, I noticed that the CEO of the company could not leave her cell phone alone. She checked it constantly throughout the daylong session. When I mentioned my observation, her excuse was that her clients were big hitters; they had to have access to her when they needed … Continue reading Can One Bad Attitude Destroy Your Team?
Lately, I have tried to make a habit of regularly reviewing my business practices and taking time to consider the things that make me truly grateful. At the top of my ‘gratefulness’ list currently are the clients who give me a call or schedule a meeting simply to have a conversation. That may sound small, … Continue reading Being Grateful For Clients Who Just Want To Talk
Do you have the guts and the courage to have your business succeed? The government doubts it. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, over 50% of small businesses fail within their first year of operation. 95% fail within the first five years. That is 19 out of every 20 small businesses in the country. … Continue reading 5 Courageous Business Moves To Help Your Company Survive
Consider our ancestors, hunting on the open savanna for big game that was larger, faster, and more ferocious than they were. Armed with nothing but spears and teamwork, ancient humans and proto-humans succeeded in taking down animals that could feed a whole tribe for a week at a time. Working alone under these conditions was … Continue reading How To Foster A Healthy Tribe
A couple years ago, I had a client who was in business with his son. Habitually, this son was late to management team meetings. His tardiness was so recurrent and predictable that everyone on the team, except me, laughed about it while we waited. Needless to say, I was less than impressed by the behavior. … Continue reading You Can’t Manage Time, Just Commitments
Marketing never had a greater ally than Authority, and here’s why. In their new book, Authority Marketing: How to Leverage 7 Pillars of Thought Leadership to Make Competition Irrelevant, Adam Witty and Rusty Shelton take a deep dive into the concept of Authority Marketing, how it works, and why it provides immeasurable benefit to business leaders. The … Continue reading Authority Marketing: The Big Idea
At our firm, we have always believed that our existing clients were our strongest source of growth and best new lead generators for our business. But, until recently, we had not taken time to drill down into the reasons why we believed this to be true. As a captive insurance management company, our expertise in … Continue reading Trust: The Best Business Development Tool
When I am speaking to entrepreneurs or leadership teams, I always ask them the following question: “What is the first word that comes to your mind when I say the word entrepreneur?” 95% of the time I get the same exact answer: Risk-taker. When I go on to ask the audience how many of them … Continue reading Two Steps To Help You Become A More Confident Risk-Taker
Challenges in business are part of the entrepreneurial journey. And as a business owner, I have learned that some of the best experiences and lessons come from meeting a challenge head on and blazing a path forward. Today, our company is fortunate to be in a high growth mode with lots of exciting change happening. … Continue reading Connectivity: Our Ultimate Corporate Strategy
“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” Best-selling author and motivational speaker Denis Waitley could have garnered these words of wisdom from watching my parents as I grew up. When my mother met my father, he was the son of a first generation Italian … Continue reading From A Single-Wide To A ForbesBooks Author
Six years ago, March 20th became The International Day of Happiness. A United Nations resolution emphasized the need for leaders to move beyond the constraints of GDP as a measure of a country’s well-being, and so declared this day a time to do so. Earlier in the year, the UN released its first World Happiness … Continue reading International Happiness Day: What Makes (And Keeps) Us Happy At Work?
Promote your authority to listeners who are part of your niche market – business professionals, entrepreneurs, and consumers. Today, everybody uses social media to build and reinforce their brand and their position of authority in the marketplace, and you and your company are probably no exception. But sometimes in addition to zigging with everyone else, it’s … Continue reading ForbesBooks Radio: Utilizing The Power of Airwaves
There are so many risks that keep a business owner up at night. Will the market hold up to support my revenue goals and keep my employees on the job? Will the hurricane season be gentle this year and keep my service business thriving during its busiest time? Will a new innovative product disrupt my … Continue reading How To Turn Your Risks Into Profit
The secret for any business to achieve success is to grow from being known for what you do, to who you are. I’ve never heard anyone explain this to me as succinctly as Dan Kennedy, author of No B.S. Direct Marketing. How does this work in practice? If you drive a Ford SUV and it … Continue reading Who Are You?
As a business owner, you know that your time is your most valuable resource. As a result, you make every effort to control it. You say no to meetings and cut extraneous obligations. You have strategies to help you stay focused, avoiding all distraction and interruption. You have systems in place so that you can … Continue reading Take The Meeting: A Fresh Approach To Time Management
I’m a member of a few different business Mastermind Groups. I cherish each and every group I am in, and find value in their interactions. One of the questions that has been extremely popular lately among all my groups is this: how do adults make friends? When we were in high school and college, it … Continue reading How To Make Friends As An Adult
Entrepreneurs are described many different ways. Ambitious, driven, creative, and passionate, to name a few. One of the less complimentary descriptions that I hear quite often is that entrepreneurs are “cocky” individuals. In my experience, it is a fair characterization. No doubt that I was cocky earlier in my entrepreneurial life. What does that mean? … Continue reading Are You Still Cocky?
Are your employees happy? To be honest, I don’t care and you shouldn’t either. Have you ever climbed the “Golden Stairs” on the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska wearing a 70-pound backpack in warm, 80-degree weather? Well I have, with five others, and none of us felt “happy” while doing it. None of us were getting … Continue reading Is Employee Happiness Your Responsibility?
Think of any team sport at any level. No matter what sport you choose, they all have one thing in common: the coach is always focused on a playbook for success. All coaches—well, at least the ones who want to win—train their teams based on a specific, proven playbook. Now think of your business, specifically … Continue reading Three Steps To Growing Sales With A Playbook
What is your most valuable asset? I’m not talking about material possessions. What is your most valuable asset as it relates to your success in business? Is it your education? Is it capital? Is it time? All of these are vital, but none of them are nearly as important as your health. Whether you’re an … Continue reading Five Simple Ways To Protect Your Most Valuable Asset
Companies fail when their leaders fail to execute. But why do entrepreneurs fail to execute in the first place? What are the habits of high-performing CEOs that anyone running a business should incorporate into their own routines and growth strategies? From my 20-plus years of asking businesses these provocative questions, and using the answers to … Continue reading 5 BIG Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Fail And How To Avoid Them
The holidays have come to an end, and it is time to get back to work. For entrepreneurs and leaders around the world, I can only imagine how anxious you are to get going when there are so many mountains still to climb! But before you dive head-first into your business, it is also time … Continue reading 2018 Leadership Resolution: Conduct A Performance Review At Home
It is that time of year. As 2017 comes to a close, people are looking back at the successes and failures of the last 12 months and making plans for the year to come. Businesses are reviewing their annual performance, setting goals for the future, and outlining priorities and action plans for Q1. If you … Continue reading Your 2018 New Year’s Resolution: Recruit Top Sales Performers
One of my colleagues at CEO Coaching International, Rick Sapio, has a unique hobby: since the 2008 economic crisis, he’s interviewed over 40 billionaires to understand what habits and strategies set them apart from the mere successful millionaires of the world. Here are three insights on billionaire behaviors that Rick shared on a recent episode … Continue reading How To Start Leading Your Company The Way A Billionaire Would: Three Insights From The World’s Top Business Leaders
I attended a business awards event a few weeks back. The question asked of all the nominees on stage was: What advice would you give your younger self? There were some funny responses (“Dump that guy!”), and some serious responses (“Study harder. It makes a difference.”). All of the answers were interesting and sparked good … Continue reading A Few Words Of Advice For My 20-Year-Old Self
The very best leaders amongst us are those who are self-aware, as they understand that a lack of self-awareness can be the fatal flaw in their career. By either overcoming or compensating for their weaknesses, leaders go a long way toward setting themselves up for success in their business life. But what is the potential … Continue reading Stop Hoping, Start Committing: How To Ensure Your Personal Priorities Don’t Take A Backseat To Work
Life as a successful businessperson does not have an off button or a finish line. And as exciting as the journey is, it can be quite mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially and physically taxing to run a business. As a matter of fact, studies show that burn out, lack of passion and internal disharmony are a … Continue reading Routines, Rituals, Habits, And Superstitions
By Bea Wray, Practice Chair, Entrepreneurship I don’t know what you were watching on TV last night – but I bet it wasn’t Leave It To Beaver on CBS. Back in the day, when television was limited to three or four channels, all of us watched the same shows at the same time every night, … Continue reading How Media’s Changed – And Why You Should, Too
Well, this is definitely true in most cases. The manacoach (exceptional manager) who has the courage to proactively have the tough conversations rarely—and I mean hardly ever—has to fire anyone. When I’m sitting with business owners or managers and they say that someone is not “getting it,” I ask, “Does this person know what is … Continue reading Do Your Job And You Won’t Have To Fire Anyone
I was at an annual planning session recently with a client. Leonard, an employee who is a non-performer, came up in the discussion. “Leonard is a really nice guy,” said my client. My response: “Nice guy is not a profession.” The longest time in a leader’s life is the time between losing confidence in someone … Continue reading When It Comes to Your Leadership Team, Nice Guy Doesn’t Cut It
Harvard Business School began offering its first Executive Education Program in 1945. Self-described as “A Catalyst for Transformation,” each year more than 10,000 business leaders from over 200 countries attend various programs offered across the globe. One such program, the Owner/President Management (OPM) program takes place on the famed Harvard Business School campus in Boston, … Continue reading A Lifetime Of Learning And Growing
Ask any entrepreneur of any age, gender, or industry the reason why they started their own business, and their response will almost always be the same: “Autonomy.” Entrepreneurs love being their own boss and calling the shots on a daily basis. I get it, I am a serial entrepreneur, and have been one for almost … Continue reading The Entrepreneur’s Solution For Kryptonite
We have all heard the cost of a bad hire. Many of us have experienced it. Depending on what you read, it’s anywhere from one to three years of that person’s salary, not to mention how it hurts your team. No one is 100% successful in hiring. Why? Because hiring is not an art or … Continue reading The Four Biggest Blunders In Hiring: Are You In Line?
Business leaders in all industries are constantly searching for ways to boost morale, improve efficiency and become more competitive. In pursuit of those worthy goals, business leaders are also searching for the internal roadblocks that might impede success. Things like disengaged employees, misallocated resources, and procedural inefficiencies are common targets. An important, but often overlooked, … Continue reading Fear: Common, Expensive, Preventable
In the wake of this summer’s historic hurricane outbreak, insurance companies have come into the media spotlight. Hurricane Harvey was the first category 4 hurricane to make landfall in Texas in almost 60 years. In a four-day period, many areas received more than 40 inches of rain as the system meandered over eastern Texas and adjacent waters, … Continue reading Insurance In The Face Of Disaster
At CEO Coaching International, we don’t pretend to have all the answers. But we do offer our clients the best questions. One common adjective I use to describe struggling businesses is “complacent.” An effective CEO is always analyzing his or her company, looking for targets that could lead to exponential growth, measuring daily activities, surveying the … Continue reading 10 Questions That Could Lead To Doubling Your Business In The Next 18 Months
We know the benefits of true employee engagement. Employees are loyal and dedicated, and offer discretionary effort unbidden. They are inspired to come to work every day because they feel like an important part of something larger than themselves. They are great brand ambassadors and contribute mightily to the bottom line. Employee engagement is not … Continue reading The Real Cost Of Employee Disengagement
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” – President Harry S. Truman I love this quote, and not just because I love reading. I average about 55 books a year – more books than there are weeks in one year. While all of this reading is super relaxing, can be entertaining and is always eye … Continue reading All Leaders Are Readers: Six Must-Read Books To Inspire Success
How does your culture smell? Does it smell good, or does it stink? Do you have a culture by design, or by default? At times, it can be difficult to identify your culture, since you are part of it. But, as an outsider, spend 30 minutes at a company and you will be able to … Continue reading You Can Smell A Culture
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