The North Bay Business Journal, an affiliate publication of the New York Times, is a weekly business newspaper which covers the North Bay area of San Francisco – from the Golden Gate bridge north, including the Wine Country of Sonoma and Napa counties.
In the Summer, 2007, Lary began writing a bi-weekly column entitled “Building a Business”. The column addresses the key issues that effect business success for family and other, privately owned businesses in the middle market. It has covered a wide variety of topics directed at the intersection of strategy, leadership and finance, including succession planning, compensation, contingency planning, competitive analysis and other related subjects. Subscribe . . .
What follows is a list of my most recent columns. By clicking on the title, you’ll be taken to the column page.
What Does It Take to be a Great Leader?
Nothing in life travels in a neat formation accompanied by bugles and cavalry.
A lot of it shows up filthy and unkempt, prominent in the mess we’ve made around our foxhole.
These lessons are typically the offspring of hubris, naivete and ignorance … or from overlooking the land mines hidden beneath our feet.
We’re sharing valuable and practical leadership tips and tools to help you BECOME a better leader.
First, you must start BEING a better leader … implementing NOW the changes necessary to adopt the proven strategies of successful leaders. You might start by building on the communication matrix and making sure you’re defending the castle to get done what only you can do. Make some time so you’re thinking past today.
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“I always turn to the sports section first. The sports page records people’s accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man’s failures.”
~ Justice Earl Warren
Get in the game. Enjoy the Ride.
The week just ended is my favorite sports week of the year. Some of you will say, “Nah, you got your calendar mixed up. Baseball season opened the previous week.”
Of course,
“There is a remarkable breakdown of taste and intelligence at Christmastime. Mature, responsible grown men wear neckties made of holly leaves and drink alcoholic beverages with raw egg yolks and cottage cheese in them.” — P.J. O’Rourke
The holidays are here and we’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to get it all done. So, instead
“ Leadership is not magnetic personality,
that can just as well be a glib tongue.
It is not ‘making friends and influencing people,’ that is flattery.
Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights,
the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard,
the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”
~ Peter Drucker
Building
“Communication is something so simple and difficult that we can never put it in simple words.”
~ T. S. Matthews
Communication = Collaboration ≠ Consensus
One of the most popular words in the business lexicon these days is collaboration.
Everyone seems eager to flatten the organization, get rid of hierarchy, eliminate command-and-control structures and collaborate across broad multifunctional teams.
“A lie will easily get you out of a scrape, and yet,
strangely and beautifully, rapture possesses you
when you have taken the scrape and left out the lie.”
~ Charles Edward Montague
Everyone makes mistakes.
We know this for a fact, don’t we? It’s pretty clear —like crystal.
Why are we are so unwilling to admit our mistakes?
Hi. I’m Lary R. Kirchenbauer, President of Exkalibur Advisors, Inc. I’m glad you found our site and hope it becomes a useful resource for you.
Not only do you get honesty and integrity from Lary but you also get creativity, maturity and deep business acumen. Lary is the diamond in the rough for middle market companies in need of corporate advisory services and transaction services.
Kelly O. Kay, Partner, Center for Corporate Innovation
