Archive for February, 2008
President’s Day - Part Two
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Today’s post is the second in a two-part series celebrating President’s Day by examining the leadership traits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In yesterday’s post I looked at the unimpeachable character of our first President, and in today’s post I’ll examine the resolve of our sixteenth President. It is an astute person who studies history and applies the lessons learned to their present day life as a method for avoiding the completely avoidable mistakes that plague many of the non-learnered. I hope that these brief examinations into the lives of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln will help you become a better and more effective leader, thus making your path to continued success more pleasant and fruitful…
Read The Full PostA President’s Day Look at Leadership
Monday, February 18th, 2008By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Since today is officially President’s Day I thought I’d take this opportunity to author a two part series in which I’ll examine the leadership characteristics of the two Presidents for which the holiday is celebrated; George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. In today’s post I begin by taking a brief look at the life of George Washington in an attempt to quickly offer some leadership tips that you can apply to your role as a C-level executive….
Read The Full PostHow’s Your Follow Through
Friday, February 15th, 2008By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Follow through it seems like a pretty basic concept. When I was just starting out in business one of my original mentors told me “to just do what you say you’re going to do, and that, in and of itself, will place you in a very select group within the business world.” When I was younger it seemed impossible to me that doing something so basic could lead to great success. Well, now that I’m older and more experienced all I can say is “how right he was!” It never ceases to amaze me at the number of people that fail to deliver on their commitments. The old cliché of “over-promising and under-delivering” has sadly become all too commonplace in the business world. Is it really that hard to fulfill on promises made? So my question to you is this…Can you, and do you, walk the talk?
Read The Full PostCharacter Matters
Thursday, February 14th, 2008By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Character; that oft discussed leadership trait that seems to be inexorably tied to sustainable success…while much has been written about the importance of character, there is surprisingly little information in circulation which actually defines it. The word ”character” surfaces in most every article, blog post, speech, book, or even casual reference to the topic of leadership so surely it must be easy to define…In today’s post I’ll take a crack at defining a word which is often used, and in my opinion often misunderstood…
Read The Full PostHillary Is Toast
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
As much as I try to avoid the subject of politics on this blog, some things just aren’t meant to be. I always told myself that I’d be responsive to our readers, and since the inception of this blog I have largely made my editorial selections based upon our subscriber’s expressed topics of interest. Since I caved-in and authored my Super Tuesday Analysis post, the e-mails have poured-in soliciting my continued election coverage. I have decided to acquiesce and expand my commentary on the election as it evolves. In today’s post I’ll provide my thoughts on the last night’s Potomac Primary in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC.
Read The Full PostSpreadsheet H*ll
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Any CEO or entrepreneur still vertical and breathing has spent more hours than they can likely count pouring over poorly conceived financial information. I probably review at least 50 spreadsheets a week, and few things chap me more than a worthless attempt at using Excel. PowerPoint presentations certainly receive more notoriety for being the butt-end of jokes from business schools to executive boardrooms, however in my opinion, a boring slide-show pales in comparison to the sophomoric use of a spreadsheet. I know this may seem like a trifling rant of little consequence, but if you stay with me I promise to connect the dots in a way that will resonate with most of the senior executives that read today’s post.
Read The Full PostMeasuring Success
Monday, February 11th, 2008By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Today’s Myatt on Monday’s question was posed by a Chief Financial Officer who asked: “What success metrics do you believe are most important to measure?” Talk about a loaded question…The reality is that each industry, sector, vertical, and micro-vertical have unique business drivers. Furthermore, depending on how a business is positioned, where it is in its maturation lifecycle, or what its current financial condition looks like will dictate which factors may be most important to measure. That being said, I’m not one to back down from a challenge, and so in today’s blog post I will attempt to provide some general guidelines that will be useful to any business attempting to analyze success metrics.
Read The Full PostSuper Tuesday Analysis
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
As entertaining as the political landscape can be at times, I have for the most part ignored the 2008 Presidential campaign on this blog until now. While I don’t plan on a major editorial shift toward political content, some of the trends that presented themselves last night are concerning enough that I believe this post is merited. I apologize in advance for using this platform as a bully-pulpit, but there are simply too many possible negative repercussions if voters don’t wake-up and see things for what they really are. In today’s post I’ll share a few concerns that I encourage everyone to pay attention to as they begin to solidify their opinions surrounding the Presidential candidates…
Read The Full PostHow to Run Effective Meetings
Monday, February 4th, 2008By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Today’s Myatt on Mondays question comes from a CEO who asks: How can I get more leverage out of our meetings? While this might seem like a strange question to be posed by a CEO, I’m afraid it is all too common that most meetings are not nearly as productive as they could be. I chose this question to answer out of more than 150 submitted this week primarily because non-productive meetings are a huge pet-peeve of mine. Whether meetings are held at the board, executive, management or staff levels, or whether they are small project related meetings or large company-wide meetings, the same basic principles apply to making meetings effective. In this blog post I’ll provide you with some basic do’s and don’ts that will help you get more out of your meetings.
Read The Full PostPersonal Branding Magazine
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008By, Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Most of you who have read this blog for any length of time know that I’ve written often on the topic of personal branding (see “The Power of Personal Branding“). Over the past few months I have been assiting Dan Schawbel who is the publisher of Personal Branding Magazine, which is a new publication that just released its third issue. This post is going to be quite short, as I simply want to introduce you to this new publication, which I believe is worthy of your attention if you are interested in the subject of personal branding.
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