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Flu-like symptoms in the C-suite
My client wanted to shake things up, so he hired someone from a similar industry that had more in common with where they want to go rather than where they’ve been. Just like my vaccine, this caused some pain. In fact, in the short-term, it has sometimes looked like a bad decision when using yester...
Best of ColoradoBiz: Feel like a fraud?
Everyone who felt like a fraud had a secret. What was Dan's secret? He'd dropped out of the eighth grade, gotten a GED diploma and never attended college. Now he was in business negotiating multimillion dollar deals with Harvard MBAs, some of the most brilliant business minds in the country. His g...
The dirty dozen dysfunctions
If you cannot describe where you’re going and how you’ll get there, you cannot align your troops. Smart, ambitious people who have no roadmap will try to figure out their own route, but they’ll go in different directions. People without ambition will sit in the middle of the road and go nowhere. Y...
Feed the hungry HiPos
Take a few seconds to think of a skilled employee at your company, and contemplate the difficulty of having to replace that employee. How long would it take to train a replacement? Does the thought scare you a bit? It should. This is why so much emphasis needs to be placed on talent development.
Are you a tiger — or a cockroach?
He coolly and calmly examined each one and found a way to persevere. successful people I know share a strategic quality: They get things done. This ability overrides intelligence, talent and connections in determining the money they earn and the speed of their success. They take positive action.
Seven great ways to limit mobile threats
BYOD, short for “bring your own device,” is an increasingly popular trend for employees, who want to stay connected 24/7 by bringing their favorite mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to the workplace. In fact, 74 percent of companies allow some sort of BYOD usage, but less than 10 p...
Chairperson, lead director, consigliere?
I used to think every board needed a chair, and early in my investing career, I was often it (or co-chair). At some point I began feeling like the chairperson role in a private company both undermined the CEO and sent the wrong signal to the employees of the company. I preferred that the CEO be th...
Help employees care about health care — or pay the price
When open enrollment ends and every employee has checked a box for a health plan, some may believe the employer’s job is finished. It’s actually just begun. The true challenge of health care runs the rest of the year. An employee could get a diagnosis of diabetes or heart disease or be dealing wit...
Six great tips to get a competitive edge
The truth is, smaller companies can create the same developmental opportunities for their managers and produce the highly-skilled, strategic leaders that can help their organizations grow. There are six best practices that have resulted from successful leadership development initiatives in large o...
Leadership: The right stuff
Strong executives may be collaborative, but they’re decisive. They may be kind, but they don’t avoid tough decisions. They likely understand and support pushing decisions to the lowest effective level, but they insist on great execution at that level. They don’t need to control all the details, bu...
A superstar’s lament
Dear Boss, Do you want to keep me? I’ve been here for two years and I’m a good employee. I usually come to work early; and I do what you ask me to do. But more than that, I do things you don’t even know to ask of me. I attend to customers with a pure heart and a smile on my face. I’m always watch...
Best of CoBiz: Top six ways to Improve your strategic thinking
Strategic thinking in its basic sense is an innovative way of thinking about the overall goals of your position, team and company. It provides a framework toward planned outcomes for the future that involves figuring out ways to keep the business growing. However, we do live in an action-oriented...
