Business Finance | Why you should read Warren Buffett’s Letter
A Weekly Business Finance series for Non-Finance Executives!
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Read Warren Buffett’s Letter to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders
So, why not jump into the deep end right now by reading Business Finance is about much more than finance
I’ve said before that leaders don’t have the luxury of confining their interests to just a few things
Does Leadership = Communication? | Use this Communication Matrix
You need Leadership Skills to ascend to the C-Suite
A young friend of mine called me recently and said he was being considered for the CEO position of his young but growing company
He was elated, so excited, so thrilled to be considered until the “be careful what you wish for” axiom popped into his head and he realized he was pretty inexperienced in leading an organization of any size
We went on to talk about his concerns and as he began to think about his candidacy, it dawned on him that he had a very limited finance background … he didn’t think much about communication … and could be a better team player. (more…)
Nothing But LEADERSHIP | Practical Tips to be a Great Leader
What Does It Take to be a Great Leader?
What do you think we’d get if we asked everyone who writes about Leadership to offer up a definition?
Probably need a new wing in the Library of Congress, don’t you think?
For some, it’s everything and anything that has to do with influencing others. It’s communication. It’s achieving accountability. For others, it’s a body of work built around values and character and timeless qualities of integrity, passion, respect, et. al. Do you have a definition that works for you?
Leadership Lessons don’t march in a neat formation
As we’ve all learned, most of life’s lessons don’t travel in a neat formation accompanied by bugles and cavalry. They arrive 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 simply from overlooking the land mines hidden beneath our feet.
This series is ONLY about practical strategies to help you become a better leader
This series is not about reiterating or re-examining the principles of leadership that so many seasoned professionals have so eloquently described. Leadership observers have extracted lessons from Julius Caesar to Patton, Jesus to Mohamed and (more…)
Flush the recession Kool-Aid! Create your own demand!
“Teach a parrot the terms ‘supply and demand’ and you’ve got an economist.”
~ Thomas Carlyle
A lady walked into a neighborhood market one day and spoke loudly over the counter to the head butcher.
“Your prices these days are atrocious, Sal. Joe’s Deli across the street is selling your $10 chuck roast for only $5!”
“I know, Mrs. Haggle. I saw the sign. The thing is . . . Joe doesn’t have any chuck roast.”
The law of supply and demand still rules
So, the law of supply and demand rears its head again, some days a beautiful vision, other days an ugly hag. We’re surrounded by her mystique everywhere we go. Traffic is tied up because there are more cars than highway space. Starbuck’s is backed up because people want coffee faster than it can be made. There are no paper clips in the supply room but there’s plenty of fruitcake left in the kitchen.
Even for tickets to a free concert?
Supply and demand drove markets long before economists appeared … and its jarring prevalence is unavoidable. One of my favorite examples is (more…)
Leadership Lessons | What is the Cornerstone of your Strategy?
At this time of year, we all get excited about personal renewal, our plans for the coming year and how we can enhance our personal and professional lives in 2011.
Even though most of us have traveled the road of broken resolutions, hope springs eternal as we prepare to refresh our commitment and recharge our batteries … and make plans to overcome our shortcomings and rise to new levels of success.
There are many fashionable approaches to this process, many of them with valuable insights.
Jonathan Fields chose 10 words to focus his energy. His approach is an expanded derivation from a three-word approach used by Chris Brogan, who, like me, uses his carefully chosen words “the way a lighthouse helps a ship in a storm.”
For sale: baby shoes, never worn
Ernest Hemingway used only six words to write what he called his greatest novel … and the more you think on it, the more intriguing it becomes.
It’s one more approach you can use to bring the essence of your 2011 plan into sharp focus.
Although we’re more interested in clarity than mystery in our annual pilgrimage to the altar of realistic expectations, this approach, like those of Jonathan and Chris, also celebrates the power of simplicity.
Find the Cornerstone of your strategy
[pullquote]“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” – Alvin Toffler[/pullquote]
Maybe you’ve used variations on these K.I.S.S. principles to craft all sorts of goals and objectives … memorialized in lists, notebooks and diagrams.
Yet, when we step back into the maelstrom of real life, distractions intrude, new input floods our inboxes, and without seeing it, we start to slowly drift off course. We madly implement course correction procedures, but instead of returning us to our original direction, they cause us to lurch about, each adjustment resulting in a slightly different course even further from our original objective.
So, how many words does that leave us? (more…)
Action Planning Podcast Series | First, kill all the strategy myths
What are we going to be covering in this 2nd podcast in our Action Planning Course?First, we're going to pull up to the dumpster to drop off the the excuses everyone uses for the lack of planning.We'll see why plans in your head are only ideas and why unless they're…
The Zen of Goal Setting: Don’t tell anyone
How many times have we been told to write down our goals so we can keep them in focus ... and make sure we tell everyone around us so they can support us and cheer us on. Derek Sivers strongly disagrees and shares what he's learned from psychologists going back…
The Shocking Truth about having fun!
Wanna have some fun? How about logistics? Now that's some fun, ain't it? Social media has stimulated countless phenomena ... but connecting with our communities is probably one of its most valuable outcomes ... which is why this new UPS commercial really caught my eye. Remember the lesson that if…