-
Search this blog
Archives
-
Recent Posts
Categories
Category Archives: Surrounding yourself with talent
There is always a bottleneck. Sometimes it is you.
At many board meetings, I can be counted upon to ask, “Where’s the bottleneck this month?” Senior management is usually prepared with an answer, and a good discussion of resource availability and application follows. Sometimes, the bottleneck is not so … Continue reading
You are watched, mostly when decisions are tough.
If you have been in management or an entrepreneur long enough, you will have experienced the gray area of decision-making where ethics, the law, your needs and expediency all collide. This is the time when you are paid the big … Continue reading
Posted in Surrounding yourself with talent
7 Comments
Help your associates advance their careers.
We’d all like to retain our best managers and employees forever or at least for as long as possible. But sometimes our corporate wants and needs conflict with what is best for an employee and his or her career development. … Continue reading
You are your company’s moral compass.
Years ago, when I was CEO of my record manufacturing company in Hollywood, I happened to walk around the plant into the press room just as Bobby, one of the employees’ favorite coworkers, was offering stolen merchandise to his fellow … Continue reading
Posted in Surrounding yourself with talent
2 Comments
Contribute to A-M-D, or support someone who does.
A. Accumulate or acquire (product line, breadth of services) M. Marketing or merchandising (expert and diligent use of resources) D. Distribution (adding channels and reinforcing relationships) Let me credit CEO Erik Hovanec (www.leisurelink.com) for this one, whether he originated it … Continue reading
Posted in Growth!, Surrounding yourself with talent
2 Comments
Celebrate each victory.
Growing companies give rise to many events that great managers will take advantage of to create and shape the culture of the company itself. Each new plateau in revenue growth, each time a month’s orders hit a record, each large … Continue reading
Recalling the Lateral Arabesque: Losing valuable employees
Funny how good messages come back in new forms after years of languishing out in the ether. Dr. Laurence J. Peter in The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong, wrote in the early 1960’s of the “lateral arabesque”, describing … Continue reading
The 18 month rule.
It can take 18 months from initial concern about a critical employee to getting a replacement up to speed. This insight is not mine, although I have experienced it several times with key employees since becoming sensitive to the concept. … Continue reading
Make informal advisors part of the team.
Whether you find advisors from family, friends, faculty or fellow managers, great advisors can become an informal resource that rivals that of more formal resources, including board members. You will certainly know when you’ve found such a treasure, almost always … Continue reading
Any advice can be worthless, or worse.
Let me tell you the story of the first investment made by a newly organized formal group of angel investors. It was thrilling for these angels to find a young entrepreneur with an idea for a business that seemed so … Continue reading
