During 2012 many family business owners feared that the current estate tax laws would change in a negative fashion. So, they rushed to create succession plans and paid estate planning advisors a lot of money only to find out that the tax laws did not change. Now, many are trying to manage their business through… Read more »

It’s that time of year when most of you are involved in the strategic planning process. If you have not already, you will soon be thinking about what you want 2013 to look like. Without a doubt, the past several years have been some of the toughest any of us have seen in our entire… Read more »

Of the four basic perspectives of corporate performance in the Balanced Scorecard (People, Systems, Customer, and Financial), Systems is commonly the least understood. We typically see champions assigned to the People, Customer, and Financial perspectives, such as an HR Director, Director of Marketing, and CFO or Controller, but the Systems perspective often gets overlooked. To… Read more »

Well, here we are, at the beginning of a new year with, hopefully, some new opportunities ahead. We have just gone through several of the worst economic years most of us have experienced in our life-times. But here we are. My experience tells me that it is pretty easy to get in a rut and… Read more »

As a leader in your business, how disciplined are you at staying the course once you have hammered out a business initiative? Do you and your leadership team regularly fulfill the commitments you have made to achieve certain goals or projects? Rather than plunge into a great new direction, do you get more disciplined, more… Read more »

As managers and leaders, we are expected to deliver consistently successful results quarter after quarter. There is absolutely no tolerance for failure to execute. What is a manager to do? Develop and manage systems. That’s right, systems, when properly designed and managed, provide the company with predictably successful results. Not computer software. Systems, here, refers… Read more »

The July-August Harvard Business Review has a very good article on being a collaborative leader. The focus of the article is about how highly effective Senior Executives keep their teams connected. Typically, an article in the HBR is about big business. However, there are a few concepts that certainly have application to where we work… Read more »

Recently I was reading about the challenging environment of a nuclear aircraft carrier. Here are some of the characteristics: Manned by a bunch of 20-year olds Deadly jet engines that can suck a person into the jet intake if too close Jet exhausts that can severely burn a man or blow him overboard Jet fighter… Read more »

Interesting question, right? Actually, it’s probably the most asked question by top performers. Further, it’s a question a lot more managers should be asking themselves. It’s the kind of attitude that works well in any competitive environment – sports, business or the game of life itself. The heart of the issue is really not am… Read more »

I was recently going through my notes, preparing to give one of my workshops on the subject of Personal Effectiveness. In preparation for the workshop each participant is requested to read some background material so all who attend have a passing understanding of (1) what the Best Practice looks like in action, (2) what it… Read more »