I just read a blog post titled Anxiety in product development. This person did such an excellent job of articulating the pains that a company gets into that I felt I need to share. It is specifically talking about software development, but many of the points are applicable to all industries. [...]
How to get the most out of your people Are you a leader who has a problem delegating work to others? Or maybe you have no problem delegating, but are frustrated when others don't do things to your standards? Or maybe you are frustrated that people come to you for every little thing [...]
Is it just a catchy phrase? Everyone by now has probably heard companies talk about “celebrating failure” or the famous one at Facebook, “move fast and break things”. I am a big believer in this methodology, but in some circles it often exhibits eye rolls and mockery. I get that. Whenever something starts [...]
Make sure you know which levers you are really pulling When building a business there are many levers you can adjust. Security. Time to Market. Customer Satisfaction. These are just some examples and it will vary per business. This is not news to you, I am sure. Also not news is that when [...]
Do you fall into this group? I recently gave a presentation to the startup incubator program associated with Southeast Community College. In it I talk about problems finding focus, implementing tools and processes too soon or waiting too long, pricing your product or services, and scaling your business to allow for personal space [...]
It is one of the most important decisions you will ever make As leaders, we have all been there. You have an employee that is making mistakes, or under performing, or sowing discontent among other employees. You have talked to them. Bargained with them. Maybe even threatened them. But the behavior continues. How [...]
So find out what they do want A common problem I see in sales is the fallacy that the person you are talking to wants what you have to sell. They don't. They don't care about what is important to you, they only care about what is important to them. And that [...]
Focus is the key Steve Jobs had a lot of questionable qualities. He could be narcissistic (he reportedly never gave any of his money to charity), he could be arrogant and, by all accounts, he was ruthless with people who worked for him. He famously denied that his daughter was his and [...]
aka, How to scale your organization I was reading an excellent blog post on the classic book “High Output Management” by Andy Grove. The blog post does a better job of summarizing the book than I ever could, so go read it now. I want to talk about an aspect of leadership [...]
Henry Ford famously said: “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” In the startup world that is an often cited example of what stance to take with your customers, telling them what they can have rather than indulging whims of irrelevant fancy. [...]
