"Values" have gone viral, and not necessarily in a good way. The process of discovering and clarifying your values and building your business based on them is a deeply personal one, but the cynical marketers among us have other designs. If they have their way, and they will, saying you have 'strong core values' wi...
Time management is painful: real leaders do it anyway. We all want to feel good, and not feel bad. So we prefer that change be comfortable. Sometimes it is. Most of the time it's not. As is so often said in the fitness world, "No pain, no gain." You want to slim your waistline? Bigger muscles? You earn that progre...
There's no shortage of opinion as to whether Apple has or hasn't 'lost the magic'. And while time will tell on that one, focusing on Apple ignores a deeper question we should be asking, one that's far more relevant to you as a small business owner or leader, whether you have 300 employees or none.
The original EMyth call to action was simple and powerful: to grow your business you have to free yourself from the technical work so you have room to lead. If you’re an architect trying to grow your firm, you won’t get there spending all day at the drafting table. But that kind of obvious technical work is just t...
Your business plan is based on increasing revenue. You're looking forward to more revenue creating more profit. And with the increase in cash flow you'll finally be able to hire more people so that your struggles will ease and you will finally be able to get free of the technical work.
Passion and drive go a long way. There were 5,000 little things you did to survive in the face of long odds of small business success - the late nights, juggling expenses, praying for new customers. You leaned on that passion and drive to get through - and it worked.
You need your managers doing real managerial work, and real managerial work has nothing to do with being a supervisor. Real management is about designing and building systems, and mentoring people - which is a very different thing than supervising them.
The results are in - and the 2013 State of The Business Owner (SOBO) Report is live. We wanted to share one of the report's key findings. Here's a preview of the "The Ownership Stack" - a powerful set of best practices successful business owners are using to grow their business in today's rapidly changing economy....
Second Annual State of the Business Owner Report reveals that the top 3 factors that motivate entrepreneurs to start their business are: freedom passion independence For today’s entrepreneurs, starting a business is not all about the money. According to the 2013 State Of The Business Owner (SOBO) Report, announced...
It takes a while for obsolete ideas to die off. There's one that I'm surprised to see is still very much in circulation. It's a management philosophy that's responsible for most of the dysfunction that exists in the business world. It goes like this:
As was famously said, you can't solve a problem at the level of the thinking that created it. Whether you're struggling with slow sales, low morale, or bleeding cash in your operations, the current issue has roots that go far deeper than the surface issue - the "symptom."
What is it about asking for help, or about accepting it when it's offered, that is so hard? Especially for business leaders, where did we get the idea that admitting our weaknesses and accepting that we have blind spots is perceived as a fatal flaw - something we have to hide or deny in order to have business succ...
In 2008 my small business collapsed. It was heartbreaking.
It might sound strange, but one of our goals in transforming our company was to make our technology department obsolete.
Most business leaders and professionals lead with their head. It mostly works, and nobody will criticize you for it (usually because that’s the way they do it). But you’re paying a huge price every day in the form of stress, stagnation and self-doubt, in ways you might not realize. Leading by heart is a whole othe...
There are an awful lot of people out there today calling themselves business coaches. Without any real professional accreditations or associations, it’s hard to know who to trust. Not just about their methodology or the quality of the training, but about their approach to business and life in general. It’s a deepl...
Business has generally been an either/or proposition. You’re either the boss or a worker, an owner or an employee. You’re either at work or in your life. You either have fear or you’re a strong leader. You either manage through intimidation, or are afraid of your own authority and end up being too distant or too n...