Why Your Leadership Is Overrated

How are your leadership skills? Likely not as good as you think. There’s no shortage of independent empirical data generated over the years supporting the fact most people tend to overrate their leadership ability. The best leaders the world has ever known had room for improvement – so do you. I've always said leaders need to get over themselves and get on to the practice of leadership. In…

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Leadership and Resourcing

It's not what you have, but what you're able to make out of what you have that matters. Every great leader understands the importance of creating leverage via proper resource allocation. The best leaders possess an innate understanding of how to create resources where none exists - they know how to deploy and redeploy resources to maximize opportunities and to minimize risk. So my question to you…

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Leadership & Loyalty

Is it just me, or has loyalty become rather scarce these days? Anyone who's been in leadership for any length of time has likely pulled more than a few knives out of their back. There seems to be way too much focus on "me” and not enough focus on “we" these days. In today's post, I'll examine the value of loyalty as it relates to leadership. There have always been those who have fostered trust…

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Social Media for CEOs

Nary a week passes where I don't hear from a CEO who's grappling with this social media conundrum: should I, or shouldn't I? The inquiry usually goes something like this: "I'm interested in learning more about social media, but my board thinks it's a bad idea, I don't have any additional bandwidth, and I'm not even sure where to start...is social media really effective for CEOs?"  The discussion…

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Leadership & Emotional Control

If the above photo resembles a typical leadership meeting at your place of work then you may want to read this post. FACT: Leaders who lack emotional control won't remain in a position of leadership for long. There has been no shortage of information published on the topic of Emotional IQ or what's referred to as EQ in recent years. After all, being in touch with your emotions, as well as being…

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Questions and Team Building for CEOs

An army of one isn't really much of an army is it? And I can assure you that any CEO who views him or herself as an army of one will fail. Whether you like it or not, your success as a CEO will be largely tied to your team building ability. Not only do great CEOs understand how to recruit a top executive team, but they also understand how to build cohesion among team members through collaboration…

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Leveraging Down for CEOs

If you desire to become a successful leader at any level, much less a top CEO, it will be essential for you to master the art of leveraging down. The simple truth is that all great leaders are highly skilled in matters of delegation. Think of any top-performing CEO and you'll find that to the one, they possess an uncanny ability to focus on the highest and best use activities. While most…

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Leadership & Employee Engagement

The topic of "Employee Engagement" is something that many CEOs tend to struggle with. Long gone are the days where the executive leadership of a company can remain sequestered in their offices with an internal focus on hard metrics. Given the current economic climate, it takes far more than cost-cutting to survive. It is the CEO who understands the need for focus on the soft metrics of customer…

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Are CEOs Getting a Bad Rap

Are CEOs getting a bad rap? In a word, yes. As a top CEO coach, I can tell you that CEOs are under siege...in fact, I would go so far as to say that CEOs as an occupational class are in a state of crisis. I understand that Americans are upset about the economic debacle we find ourselves presently entangled in. I'm upset and outraged as well. What's frustrating to most is that there are many more…

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Rogue CEOs & Board Accountability

Rogue CEOs...given the recent failure of banks and financial institutions previously thought to be untouchable, there has been a tremendous amount of justifiable venom being spewed at the CEOs of these firms. Their ignorance, and in some cases their arrogance, allowed these rogue CEOs to operate outside of normal business rules, conduct self-serving agendas, and partake in self-dealing…

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Due Diligence – Not Optional…

As much as you wish it might be so, due diligence is really not an optional consideration. Have you ever made a decision based upon what you thought was a thorough understanding of all pertinent information only to find out after the fact that you didn't know as much as you thought you did? It's not much fun to find yourself on the wrong side of the information gap...Incorrect data, omissions,…

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Employee Onboarding

Employee onboarding is not something for CEOs to take lightly. The ability to scale your company will be largely dependant on your ability to recruit, retain, and properly deploy new employees. While certainly important, recruiting is not the end-game, but rather it is the very first step in the talent management lifecycle. Over the years, I have watched great recruiting efforts fall prey to…

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Productivity for CEOs

Understanding how to maximize CEO productivity becomes even more critical during recessionary times. Oddly enough, when it comes to productivity at the C-suite, many CEOs tend to struggle with determining what constitutes the highest and best use of their time.  It has been my experience that all CEOs, regardless of tenure or ability, tend to find themselves conflicted with this issue at some…

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