Recent Articles from Laurence Valant
Best of CoBiz: The best leaders never self-promote
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from business performance improvement expert Larry Valant’s book, “Stop Breaking These Rules! 100 Hard-Hitting Truths for Business Integrity and Performance.” Selfishness and ego driven decisions don’t exist with the best leaders. Many in leadership positions are driven by their own selfish requirements. These egocentric individuals f[...]
Best of CoBiz: Do the hardest thing first
Adopt the mindset, “I will deliver… every time!” Delivering what is expected, every time, is the major ingredient of success that results from an unyielding determination that is absolutely within our control to achieve. We have the power to put in place this mindset that will determine: How I see myself How everyone […]
Best of CoBiz: Pay people what they’re worth!
Editor’s note: Here is another valuable excerpt from the new success book by national business consultant Laurence B. Valant and partner Gayle W. Hustad, “Lead and Manage! The definitive guide for getting the results you want.” Valant resides in Castle Rock. The primary objective of the leader is to grow the value of the enterprise […]
Best of CoBiz: Effective leaders make plan
(Editor’s note: Here is another valuable excerpt from the new success book by national business consultant Laurence B. Valant and partner Gayle W. Hustad, “Lead and Manage! The definitive guide for getting the results you want.”) Don had never used residual income as a measure of core performance or as a means of compensating executives. […]
Best of CoBiz: Clean up after yourself!
(Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from business performance improvement expert Larry Valant’s book, Stop Breaking These Rules! 100 Hard-Hitting Truths for Business Integrity and Performance.) Be aware of the cyclical nature of your business and be ready to do something about it before you must. All business is subject to cycles. The evidence is […]
Best of CoBiz: Create accountability
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from business performance improvement expert Larry Valant’s book, Stop Breaking These Rules! 100 Hard-Hitting Truths for Business Integrity and Performance. Organization planning is 75 percent of the formula for successful business performance. While organization in terms of structure, function and staffing is not the entire answer to effective perfor[...]
Best of CoBiz: How to be an effective manager
Management is the process through which the strategies are executed to achieve the agreed upon, quantitative objectives. While to manage means to bring about successfully, our definition is extended to define successfully as executing the plans delegated to the manager, achieving the specified quantitative objectives on time and on budget. Accordingly, effective management includes essential [&hel[...]
Best of CoBiz: People don’t leave companies….
Top management determines and sustains corporate culture. Top management, that is the CEO or the general manager and their management teams, determine and sustain corporate culture through their beliefs, actions, and behaviors, whether spoken or written or simply by their demeanor as they pass others in the hallway. Those top managements which act with kindness, […]
Best of CoBiz: Are you working for passion or a paycheck?
(Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from business performance improvement expert Larry Valant’s book, “Stop Breaking These Rules! 100 Hard-Hitting Truths for Business Integrity and Performance.” ) Truth is the grand simplifier. “f you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. – Mark Twain Have you ever noticed how some people seem to […]
Best of CoBiz: It’s hard to look smart with bad numbers
(Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from business performance improvement expert Larry Valant’s book, Stop Breaking These Rules! 100 Hard-Hitting Truths for Business Integrity and Performance.) Measure progress to plan with regular reviews of key and defined milestones. A plan is the means by which obstacles are overcome to achieve the objectives. A good plan […]
Best of CoBiz: Get the elephants off the conference room table!
It has been my experience that the most frequently ignored elephants are clearly apparent yet unresolved people, management and organizational issues. It follows then that these people centered issues, which management refuses to identify and address, inevitably lead to other weaknesses, and are t...
Can you pass the Hallway Test?
When confronted with making assignments, measuring and appraising performance and then determining merit or promotional increases, an arbitrary approach to compensation will feel like walking through a mine field. And if you try to save pennies when awarding salary increases, you will suffer highe...