Archive for March, 2014

In my opinion, companies that under-perform almost always lack enough “A” players to become a breakthrough organization.

Through the years I have witnessed businesses leap forward with proper leadership and top employees on the payroll.

I have also observed companies fail because they did not recognize the need to hire top employees and place them in key positions.

If those failing companies did hire great employees, they did not put them into the right roles or not enough were hired to make a ...

This is not a column about lost productivity or office betting pools. It’s about what you can learn from the NCAA basketball tournament that takes place every year at this time.

In sports, winning is clearly defined. In order to win, the performance gap has to close between potential and results.

We are in the middle of March Madness. One significant outcome of the tournament is that those who have the ability to perform when needed move to the next bracket and ...

Time is the most precious resource a business owner has, but you might never come to that conclusion talking with them.

How the top person in a company chooses to spend their time largely determines the ultimate value of the organization.

Years back I remember watching a DVD of Tom Peters, coauthor of In Search of Excellence telling an audience of executives that “your calendar reveals your true priorities.”

I have always divided owners into one of three categories: firefighter, architect or benchwarmers.

Firefighter ...

“… One by one
They’ll do you in
They’re bound to take their toll
The wrong thing is the right thing until you lose control
I’ve got this bank of bad habits in a corner of my soul
That bank of bad habits is worth its weight in gold”

– from “The Bank of Bad Habits,” Jimmy Buffett

The same admirable vices leading to a successful start-up and growth of a business often turn into habits capable of killing not ...