Leadership and Management
What Can You Do To Thank Your Team?
Yes, absolutely say thank you to your team. But that’s just the start. There’s plenty you can do to make sure your team knows how much you care about them: A. How about a Starbucks gift card for everyone when you hit a milestone? Here’s a smart thing you can do so your team can…
Read MoreHow The Impact Of Your Decisions Can Multiply Over Time
“Well, it seems to me you have a choice to make,” my friend and mentor Dave said to me. We were having our monthly coffee meeting. We usually met at Peets in Town and Country Center off of El Camino in Palo Alto. It was May and the weather was nice, so we were sitting…
Read MoreHow Long Should It Take Your Company To Get To Break Even?
In today’s world of “just grow baby, grow”, the break even point for startups can be all over the map. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Maybe you get to break even at a run rate of $1M/year. Maybe, like Uber, you can have revenue in the billions…
Read MoreWho Should You Talk To About Your Problems As CEO?
Being a CEO is great; at least for me it was. The biggest challenge I had is a surprising one: Who do you talk to about your problems when you’re the CEO? It’s not as obvious as you might think. Watch this short, three-minute, video to get my take on who to talk to. Do…
Read MoreWhat Should You Do To Save Your Business When It Falters?
“It’s even worse than I thought it would be,” I told Steve. “Everything is completely broken. Revenue is cratering. Product quality is horrible. The strategy sucks. And I think the team needs be completely replaced…. “Besides that, everything’s great,” I laughed. I had taken over one of three divisions the company had three months prior.…
Read MoreShould You Be Worried About The Economy Tanking As A Startup CEO?
The short answer is yes. Yes, you should be worried about the economy tanking. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. We’ve seen the stocks lose significant value over the past couple of days. Now, stock prices and the economy is not the same thing. The economy can keep…
Read MoreWhat Are The Two Traits You Need As A Successful Leader?
I’ve worked with really good leaders, and I’ve worked with really bad leaders. Good leaders and bad leaders can get people to follow them because of the proximity to power. What’s the point. The better question is what traits must great leaders possess? And there are many traits you need if you want to…
Read MoreWhat Should Your Sick Policy Be?
I had a pretty simple policy regarding being sick: If you’re healthy you should come to work. If you’re sick, you should stay home. And I followed my sick policy as CEO as best I could. There were days when, no matter how badly I felt, I had to be at work. Sometimes those days…
Read MoreWhy Your Non Technical CEO Should Be Involved In Engineering
I’m sorry, but I think you’re making a horrible mistake. Your CEO not only is justified in getting involved in the technical matters, your CEO, regardless of his technical background, should be getting involved in technical matters. More importantly, you should be welcoming your CEO’s involvement in technical matters, not trying to subvert it. Yes,…
Read MoreWhat Is The One Book Everyone In Your Company Should Read?
I currently have ten books on my list for CEOs to read. They include the books you would expect including Clayton Christensen’s masterpiece, The Innovator’s Dilemma. The Innovator’s Dilemma is a great book. It’s like the bible for startups. However, if you were to ask me for books I would like all the employees of…
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