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Effective communication is an absolute requirement for successfully starting or being highly productive in a business, but it doesn’t come naturally to many new venture founders and other business professionals. Communication is considered a social skill, and accountants and engineers, for example, Read More

I’m sure we have all seen business owners or professionals with high levels of passion and energy touting an idea that seems to make very little sense to us. Of course, we never see ourselves in this mode, yet we need to recognize that all humans see reality differently through a built-in set of “ Read More

One of the toughest questions I get as a mentor to business leaders and professionals is how to handle and communicate bad news and failures to employees and other constituents. The concern is exposing business weaknesses and losing the confidence which you have worked so hard to build. In my exper Read More

Innovation is the key to long-term business success, both in new ventures as well as established organizations. Yet every business and every founder I know struggles with this challenge, focused on hiring the right people and implementing the right process. Yet, in my experience the key seems to be Read More

People who get stressed managing their own lives don't make good business leaders. All businesses, especially small ones, require multi-tasking, work prioritization, and constant decision-making, with minimal assistance or help from experts. That's why Fortune 500 executives usually don't survive a Read More

Every business leader I know recognizes the need for a culture that promotes continuous innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit, and creates sustainable growth across all functions in the business. Yet most don't really know how to foster that environment or assess when they have achieved it. They Read More

I am convinced that none of the business leaders I have met or known in my career was recognized as born with the leadership attribute, but earned it by learning and demonstrating the relevant skills along the way. As a mentor to aspiring new business founders, I’m often asked what skills are requi Read More

In my early experiences as a business executive and advisor, I have often seen new business investors focus primarily on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage. In reality these are core attributes for every funding equation, and while these are necessary, they Read More

At some point in their life, hopefully everyone strives to be the best in their chosen business role or profession. Most people think that being the best requires more intelligence, more training, and more experience. In reality, in business as well as in sports, the evidence is conclusive that i Read More

Innovation tends to come naturally from aspiring entrepreneurs and new teams, but as your company grows, that spirit of innovation is often lost. The focus moves to reducing risk, creating repeatable processes, and satisfying existing customers. The resulting teams concentrate on honing existing pr Read More