Common CEO Mistakes

Do you ever complain that your direct-reports don’t make enough decisions on their own? Do they ever complain about your micro-managing? In my work with CEO’s and their Sr. Executives over the last 10 years, I often see that that the boundaries and authority for decision-making are blurry or non-existent.…

How often does something like this happen to you? One of your Key Executives hires a new employee. You find out that another candidate was a much better fit, but because she was requesting another $6,000 in total compensation, he didn’t hire her. You think, “The compensation difference between candidates…

One of my favorite leadership bloggers is Mike Myatt. Describing himself as busting leadership myths one-by-one, I find his blogs both direct and relevant to leaders of all size companies.  Here is a sampling of his posts:   8 Ways to Spot Great Leadership The best leaders are not interested…

“The second requirement for building a healthy organization—creating clarity—is all about achieving alignment…Within the context of making an organization healthy, alignment is about creating so much clarity that there is as little room as possible for confusion, disorder, and infighting to set in. Of course, the responsibility for creating that…

Once attained, there’s no guarantee of repeat success for any of us, but we can help keep the odds in our favor by learning from the mistakes and misfortunes of others. Here are some valuable lessons of what NOT to do:    Who’s REALLY Killing Best Buy? Many feel that…

Even if you are motivated by the best intentions, tolerating mediocrity by you, the CEO, is one of the most common and devastating practices. Like a bad case of flu, mediocrity in your Executive Team will quickly spread throughout your entire organization. Here are three reasons why: Poor or average…

    Is most of your success attributed to your great execution? Were you a master at getting things done? As a result of your "doing" orientation, did your company grow? Now do you have a problem with execution or growth? Is your company too big to keep up your…

When you describe your company's vision, is it so vivid that I can see and feel the same thing? If not, then your vision is probably too vague, uninspiring or outdated.  Effective vision statements: provide a sense of direction. motivate and challenge your “A” Players. provide a framework on which…

  The fact is that most of the biggest catastrophes that we've witnessed rarely come from information that is secret or hidden. It comes from information that is freely available and out there, but that we are willfully blind to, because we can't handle, don't want to handle, the conflict…

I am amused by comments that I hear and read about Apple and it’s leadership. For example: “They need to do more research and ask for customer input.” “They are arrogant.” “Steve Jobs was a perfectionist and maniac about his products.  He was always challenging his employees to do more.…