Smoothing Rough Edges

How rough are your edges? Which aspects of your professional life need to be smoothed, polished, developed, or refined? Do you understand what it takes to close the gap between success and true greatness as it applies to you? We have all known truly talented executives and entrepreneurs who while successful, still have a huge barrier precluding them from reaching their full…

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Consultants: Resistance Is Futile

When you look back on your career, you remember the jobs you took, the jobs you declined, the opportunities realized and the opportunities lost.  You remember the special people along the way; the great bosses, mentors, coaches and the lifelong friends.   You also remember the Consultants.  As a consumer of consulting services for more years than I care to admit, I have developed a well defined…

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6 Defining Values of a Leadership Culture

Twelve years after launching culture change consulting services, I am finally sitting down to write about six defining values of a leadership culture. These are factors I’ve learned that define whether an organization can improve their Culture or not. No surprise that all six values rise and fall on leadership. Before I unpack the six values, let me paint the backdrop of how it all began. In…

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Leadership’s Role in Digital Transformation

Do You Need to Hire a Head of Digital Transformation? News Flash: The #1 thing leaders need to understand is that the Digital Transformation train left the station a few years ago. If you weren't on board back then, you need to stop looking for the next train and rapidly go in search of building a rocket ship. Businesses have run out of time to embark on multi-year transformation projects - that…

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Why Your Leadership Is Overrated

How are your leadership skills? Likely not as good as you think. There’s no shortage of independent empirical data generated over the years supporting the fact most people tend to overrate their leadership ability. The best leaders the world has ever known had room for improvement – so do you. I've always said leaders need to get over themselves and get on to the practice of leadership. In…

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Leadership & The Expectation Gap

When it comes to leadership, I can share the issues of creating and delivering on expectations are no small matter. In fact, understanding how to come out on the right side of the expectation curve can often be the difference between being viewed as an average leader and one held in high regard. Let me make this as simple as I can; managing expectations is gamesmanship - aligning them is…

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Is the Customer Always Right?

Is the customer really always right? How far should a company go to satisfy their clientele or customer base? What is the lost opportunity cost associated with customer churn? Is there a point when satisfying the customer is actually harmful to the enterprise, or back to the original question, is the customer always right? In today's post I'll share my opinion as to the validity of this old…

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How to Hire & Manage Consultants

While you might be lucky enough to survive in business with little or no advice from others, you will certainly not maximize your potential for success by doing so. All CEOs and entrepreneurs need advice in a wide variety of constantly changing areas…That said, I’m always somewhat perplexed as to why people hire certain professionals. The nature of my business is that I often succeed other…

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What Is the CEO Average Tenure and Should They Have Term Limits?

I have read some interesting articles and blog posts of late on the subject of CEO term limits and felt this topic worthy of discussion. You should know from the outset that I fundamentally disagree with the concept of CEO term limits, and quite frankly I cannot really come up with a valid reason for supporting such a regressive concept. Any such argument in my opinion is rooted either in flawed…

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Entrepreneur, CEO or Both?

Entrepreneur, CEO, or Both? Which hat or hats do you wear? CEO...that title sounds good doesn't it? Okay, so you founded the company, but does that mean you should also be the chief executive? Did you bestow the title upon yourself simply because you had the authority to do so, or are you the right person for the job? Perhaps you were the right person for the job initially, but has the company…

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What All Great Leaders Have In Common

All great leaders have one thing in common: They read voraciously. Did you know that the average American only reads one book a year? Worse than this is the fact that 60% of average Americans only get through the first chapter. Contrast this with the fact that CEOs of Fortune 500 companies read an average of four to five books a month. Even more impressive is that some of the most successful…

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CEO Success: It’s Not Random

Success is not random...CEOs need to realize that neither their success nor their failure is a random act. CEOs also can rarely lay blame for their victories and losses on anyone other than themselves. Top CEOs have a knack for consistently exhibiting the right combination of skill sets, competencies, leadership aptitude, and decisioning ability. Failed CEOs simply do not. Having success as a CEO…

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Influence and Personal Branding

I'm often asked how to tangibly measure personal brand equity and my answer is quite simple...The value of a personal brand is directly proportionate to its ability to create and wield influence. When it comes to the subject of personal branding much has been written about authenticity, transparency, marketability, thought leadership, etc., but it is the ability to leverage the sum of these…

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Character Matters

Character Matters...if our society can take anything away from watching the ridiculous nature of the public debacles that seem to occur on a daily basis, it should be that Character Matters. Character; that oft discussed leadership trait that seems to be inexorably tied to sustainable success...while much has been written about the importance of character, there is surprisingly little information…

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Blogging for M&A

I think it's fair to say that Blogging for M&A has arrived when two banks merging spawns a blog. I saw a tweet (code for twitter post) from Dan Schawbel about the new Wells Fargo - Wachovia Blog which is dedicated to topics directly related to the Wells Fargo / Wachovia merger, and I simply couldn't resist the opportunity to applaud the efforts of Wells Fargo on this initiative. This is the…

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Innovate or Perish

Innovate or Perish is a battle cry that I have long espoused to my clients. I can't think of a better example of what can happen to those companies that fail to innovate than the rumors circulating about the Tribune Co. The Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and other once-revered trophy brands is hemorrhaging under the burden of huge debt obligations, insufficient cash…

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