Earlier this summer, we all read and watched the rescue of the boys soccer team stranded in the depths of a cave in Thailand. As the story unfolded, no one knew if saving the boys was even possible. Their dire circumstances included cultural, language and procedural differences; severe logistical and environmental challenges; and the stakes … Continue reading 5 Critical Leadership Lessons: The Thai Soccer Team Rescue
Summer is a special time of year. For the parents of young children, there is the last day of school followed by the prospect of unscheduled (or superscheduled) days. For older students graduating from high school or college, it is the jumping off point into their next chapter. Each year, wisdom is shared with these … Continue reading Make your Business a University Led by Your Team
Are you a coward? Before you respond, “No, of course not,” consider a couple of scenarios. When a customer sends you a complaint via email, do you argue with her by firing back an email? When you want a colleague to know that you object to his behavior in a meeting, or at an event, … Continue reading Only Cowards Hide Behind Their Keyboard
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?
In the late 80’s, my dad founded a small landscaping company in southern Arizona. Very little has changed in that office environment since. I have childhood memories of toddling around the ‘back room,’ a space dominated by large filing cabinets with every email, invoice, work order, and contract over the decades, meticulously printed and filed … Continue reading Cybersecurity: The Secret to Business Growth
Business leaders agree – building your team is often the most grueling part of founding a business. After all, what is a leader in the absence of a champion team to lead? The health and prosperity of your company depend on finding the right Team Members, whose skill and spirit align with your mission. The … Continue reading How To Build A Successful Team
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
Just over a decade ago, I survived a devastating car accident. The first lesson I learned after the crash was this: You’ve got to know your make and model. In other words, to really live, you must know yourself. I didn’t know this as I was on auto-pilot at work, moving through airports, living life … Continue reading Know Your Make And Model: 3 Ways To Improve Your Leadership Through Increased Self-Awareness
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
The internet is full of white noise – with thousands of competing voices making unverified, unsupported claims. A published book, by comparison, is refreshing on account of its authority and gravitas. It has essentially been endorsed by everyone who fought to bring it into existence – publishers, marketers, and editors, who all saw value and … Continue reading You Can’t Spell Authority Without Author
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
Throughout American history, in workplaces, schools, and in government, it has always been easier to say “no.” “No, the immigrants are not up to our standards.” “No, women or people of color cannot be trusted to vote.” “No, it is not possible to take care of the environment and boost the economy at the same … Continue reading The United States: Built By People Who Said Yes
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?
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
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?
America is a diverse country built through many decades of hard work by generations of immigrants like my grandparents and likely yours. America truly is a melting pot. My great-grandfather, Luigi Vallorani, left his home in Italy for America because he believed the streets here in the New World would be paved with gold. After … Continue reading Immigration And The American Dream
I talk and write all the time about engaged employees and how they are the bedrock of a high performing operation. Highly engaged employees have bought into the organizational mission and vision, and they serve without urging as brand ambassadors wherever they go. Highly engaged employees are the “A” players who can transform a mundane … Continue reading The Four Levels Of Employee Engagement
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
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
TEDMED hosted its latest conference in early November in Palm Springs, CA. The event featured many outstanding speakers and conversations led by thought leaders hoping to inspire a healthier world. Below is a selection of the most powerful presentations I attended at this year’s conference. Note: videos of each of these speakers will be shared … Continue reading Insights From TEDMED 2017
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
For years, leaders in business ruled their employees in a benevolent (or not-so-benevolent) dictatorship. Employees, seen as interchangeable, were often treated with indifference from their manager, and the response to mistakes was typically punitive, even shaming, and full of blame. Employees endured these conditions because, in an economy where there were more people than jobs, … Continue reading What Does Neuroscience Have To Do With Leadership?
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
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
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
The military and entrepreneurs, together? At first glance, you might think this makes no sense as they could not be more opposite, at least on paper. One brings to mind scenes of crowded sales presentations and late nights in a dimly lit office, while the other conjures images of a base camp in a faraway … Continue reading 6 Leadership Lessons Shared By The Military And Entrepreneurial Communities
Ah, millennials—their work habits, their priorities, the struggle to hire them, the struggle to keep them. These are no doubt familiar pain points for many in the business world. Millennials’ lack of engagement is well documented, but whose problem is it, really? To this point, many efforts to develop environments that will recruit and retain … Continue reading How To Retain Bright, Young Talent: Live It Or Lose Them
“So, Randy, how is business going?” “Great, mom! We have grown from three to nine offices, we have over 200 employees and our sales continue to grow rapidly!” In the late 1990s, this was my response as an ambitious, but inexperienced entrepreneur whenever my family asked about work. At the time, our business had grown … Continue reading Are Your Revenue And Productivity Trends Polar Opposites?
When Michael Jordan was at the pinnacle of his NBA career, who received the most reward and recognition—Jordan or his head coach Phil Jackson? Phil Jackson is one of the winningest coaches in sports history, yet anyone will tell you the answer to this question is “His Airness” Michael Jordan. When Steve Nash—point guard of … Continue reading Stop Putting Your Top Players On The Bench
I first heard this challenge from Ram Charan, a best-selling author and global advisor to top CEOs. When I heard him speak to a group of entrepreneurial leaders at a large convention, challenging us all to double our personal capacity every two to three years, my light bulb not only lit up, it has shined … Continue reading How to “Double Your Personal Capacity”: Five Important Questions
You’re camping, sleeping in a tent. You wake up and hear a mosquito buzzing around your head. It’s annoying. You can’t go back to sleep. You know it’s going to bite you. You know it’s coming. Keeping a weak performer is just like that mosquito: an annoyance you can’t shake that distracts you and your … Continue reading How Many People Have You Fired Too Soon?
We recently got the chance to talk with ForbesBooks Author Randy Nelson about his book, The Second Decision. Read on to learn more about the Amazon bestseller and Randy’s entrepreneurial expertise. ForbesBooks: What is The Second Decision? Randy: It’s a two-part leadership decision. Part one is to decide what role you are going to play over the next 3-5 years; … Continue reading The Second Decision With Randy Nelson
Goal setting is an important part of success in any venture. How can you achieve any marker unless you’re consciously directing your energies toward the final outcome? The logical answer is that you’re not going to succeed by sheer luck with no set course. That’s why concise business plans are so imperative to garnering funding, … Continue reading The Science Behind Setting Goals (and Achieving Them)
7 Things to Do Every Morning for a More Productive Day The way that you start your day can have a significant effect on what you get done afterward. The most successful entrepreneurs and CEOs take charge of their days by starting the morning in ways that help them become more productive. A few of … Continue reading 7 Things to Do Every Morning for a More Productive Day
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