Articles, reports, and stories by authorities on topics of interest to CEOs, business executives, and leaders.

Read our recent posts:

• Why the word KIND is the best leader quality
  Beyond the ability to make nice remarks, the power of kindness in leadership goes a long way. It is about creating an environment where the employees feel that what is being valued and understood is real.
• YIKES: The Four Fatal Fears
  As we’ve seen, the human brain is an amazing complex thing. For the most part, it’s a whiz at helping us make our way through the world, both physically and emotionally. But it has one significant flaw that Fear really exploits: It is a blindly functioning organ.
• YIKES: Slag and the Tiger
  ”Yikes: Slag and the Tiger” is the second part of a series of articles that look at Fear: How we humans are hard-wired for Fear, how Fear can hold us back, and how we can handle it to get better results in our lives.
• YIKES: How Fear Blocks Progress
  ”Yikes!” is a series of articles taking a look at Fear: How we humans are hard-wired for Fear, how Fear can hold us back, and how we can handle it to get better results in our lives.
• Making a Difference
  “The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials…the most money…or the most awards. They simply are the ones who care the most.”
• Concrete is Easy; People are Hard
  I’m always bothered when people discuss “hard skills” (task stuff) and “soft skills” (people stuff). I find that most people find the so-called “soft skills” the hardest to learn and implement.
• Labor Day and Rotten Jobs
  The biggest payback of a rotten job is appreciation. Later in your working life, you’ll know that whatever the challenges of your current job, it’s still better than that rotten job you once had.
• Not Every Business Owner Wants to Make a Fortune
  Being a business owner or CEO means being faced with the constant challenge of making critical decisions that shape the future of the company. Deciding on whether you want to go in a lifestyle or a legacy direction has significant implications for your short-term goals, work-life balance, and long-term vision.
• Data Doesn’t Lead
  People don’t fit neatly into spreadsheets and data analytics. We are predictably unpredictable, rationally irrational and consistently inconsistent. Having access to large amounts of data doesn’t necessarily make decisions easier or better.
• Change for the Better: Two Factors that Make or Break Your Change Efforts
  Change efforts both large and small often fail because leaders do not address the human aspect of the change.
• The Key Principles of Great Leadership
  There are many repercussions to poor leadership strategies in our workplace. From unengaged employees, who lack any investment in our company’s culture, to an unhappy workplace with people ready to walk out of the door. So, what are the principles of great leadership?
• Naked in the Lunch Line
  Legends contain truths that people won’t—or can’t—express directly. The meanings within can be important guideposts in understanding the true operational culture.
• Go Awkward Early
  Awkward situations are like traffic tickets. They don’t get better with avoidance. We all face awkward situations in our personal and work lives. The issue is not that we have these challenges; it is how we respond to them that makes the difference.
• 20 Questions Leaders Should Ask Themselves Before Hiring Employees
  Few leaders seem to recognize the full impact of how the employment market has shifted. If you think the only shift in the market is having to pay more for similar roles, then you have missed the real change.
• Set ‘Em Up To Fail!
  If you’re tired of not knowing whether your people will be successful, why not make certain? Here are six sure-fire strategies guaranteed to ensure your people will fail spectacularly.
• Why is it so Difficult to Hire and Retain our People?
  Companies are not focusing on the things that matter to people most when trying to attract talent. There’s a disconnect between what recruiters, and leaders, think employees want – and what they actually want.
• The Non-Linear Path to Focused Growth
  Creating a growth plan depends on considering the interdependence of four focus areas in business.
• Why Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
  To avoid having your Culture eat your Strategy for breakfast, don’t select a Strategy in a vacuum. Consider your culture and choose the best past forward to success.
• Seven Steps toward a Stronger Culture with Financial Benefits
  Culture is created by individuals, not organizations. It doesn’t exist “out there”; it’s how each employee shows up and how they create an environment for others to show up.
• Clean up Your Marketing Mess
  Find the profits you’ve been missing. Good marketing maintenance can increase revenues by 20 percent or higher while decreasing the cost of sales. Here are some of the areas in your marketing regimen that tend to get “messy” over time.
• Mind the Gap
  “Mind the Gap” can mean a lot of things. But Success Authorities, “Mind the Gap” represents what is missing between where we expect business performance to be and where it is currently.
• The 7 Signs You Have Poor Leadership
  Poor leadership shows up in numerous ways and has a huge negative impact on the business. Understanding the traits of poor leaders can help you avoid leadership pitfalls.
• Culture Clash: Why M&As Often Fail
  Perhaps no other business endeavor has a more abysmal success rate that Mergers and Acquisitions. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Cultural awareness can minimize the danger of failure.
• Culture: The Bedrock of Competitive Immunity
  Culture is created by individuals, not organizations. It doesn’t exist “out there”; it’s how each employee shows up and how they create an environment for others to show up.
• Roadblocks to Competitive Immunity
  With courage and commitment, you can remove roadblocks and clear a path toward Competitive Immunity.
• Self-Awareness: The Foundation of Effective Leadership
  Self-aware leaders create a culture that attracts people, inspires people to contribute in meaningful ways and keep those people.
• Velocity and Competitive Immunity
  There are compelling reasons for an organization to practice Velocity, especially if the goal is to achieve Competitive Immunity.
• Unique Value and Competitive Immunity
  Creating Unique Value can be a challenge, but it is essential to achieving Competitive Immunity and the long-term, high reward Customer relationships that go with it.
• What is Competitive Immunity and Why Should I Care?
  Companies seeking Competitive Immunity make products that people want to buy. Leaders today need to be focusing on how they can achieve Competitive Immunity.
• Trust and Competitive Immunity
  At the heart of Competitive Immunity lies Trust. Think about those organizations you trust. Consider why you trust them. The same is true for leaders…What is it about them that engenders your trust?
• Seven Pathways to Team Engagement and Cohesion
  The revolving door of employees negatively impacts morale, productivity, and the ability to provide quality service for customers. Here are seven ways that leaders can do something about it.
• Don’t Settle for Competitive Advantage: Aspire to Competitive Immunity
  People create Competitive Immunity, which is why it’s more sustainable than competitive advantage.
• Uncovering the Real Culture that Rules Your Business
  Culture is especially crucial in Permanent White Water
• Change Leadership Starts with You
  When leaders talk about big change but nothing about them looks or seems different, employees find it hard to believe and support. To employees it smacks of lip service.
• Are You Managing or Leading?
  You manage when you need things to happen in a well-defined way. You lead when you need to make changes.
• 5 Destructive Habits
  The lack of authenticity sucks the productivity, performance, morale, innovation, engagement, retention, and progress right out of a team or company. Here are five of the most destructive habits of off-purpose professionals…and how to change them.
• Why Culture Matters
  Very few business leaders are active and intentional when it comes to building and maintaining their culture. Yet, it’s crucial that any organization that seeks success requires a solid, effective culture in which everyone shares, maintains, and strengthens the 4 Cs.
• Think Different, Be Bold and Swing a Big Hammer
  “Are we being shackled by situations imposed on us? Are we echoing the dogma of a former era? Are we chasing defectors? Or are we preparing to break new ground?”
• The Human Process for Moving through Change
  A graphic example of the human change process from occurrence to acceptance.
• The Living, Learning, Innovatively Adept Organization
  As with any life-force, organizations are at their best when their systems are operating in harmony and health. Organizations have an underlying ecosystem which we focus on to improve our clients’ capacity for growth, innovation and evolution: Ecosystem of the Living, Learning Organization A. Heart/Purpose:The heart of the company is its reason for being. Purpose is the ...
• Achieve Alignment with Your Innate Purpose
  HOW WOULD YOUR COMPANY EXCEL IF YOU… Had access to a powerful and accurate neuroscientific assessment tool that helped you manage and lead teams more effectively while increasing engagement, productivity, and retention? Knew with confidence which team members to tap for specific projects, positions, and career tracks? Could accurately identify your team’s overall innate purpose, special gifts, and blind ...
• The Art of Managing Change
  Planning in the business world has largely been based on believing the continuance of past trends and the combination of customer needs, environmental factors, funding sources, and staffing will remain fairly constant.  However those things have become far less dependable.  Today, change is largely unpredictable, often comes in big waves, with great speed and is ...
• Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team
  Do your Team members trust one another? Do you have “vulnerability-based” trust with each other? Does your Team engage in productive conflict to vet ideas? Does it know the difference between “good” and “bad” conflict? Does your Team achieve commitment to the objectives of your organization? Does everyone have buy-in and clarity? Do your Team members hold each ...