5 ways to lead from behind for sustainable growth

5 ways to lead from behind for sustainable growth This article was published as part of the Denver Business Journal Leadership Trust, an invitation-only network of influential business leaders, experts, executives and entrepreneurs. Companies that brand themselves independently of their founders are more likely to see sustainable growth than those that primarily identify with their founder.…

Advisory board primer: Why you should have one and what they can do

Advisory board primer: Why you should have one and what they can do This article was published as part of the Denver Business Journal Leadership Trust, an invitation-only network of influential business leaders, experts, executives and entrepreneurs. I have been spending more time recently working with small business CEOs on the how, when and why of…

Do you have C Players on your team? Sophisticated yet basic logic for managers

The credit for this month’s article goes to Don VanWinkle. Don is a management savant, master of small business finance, and generally brilliant man. I have been honored to know him as a friend, mentor and banker for more than a decade. Don and I were having lunch a few weeks ago and one of…

Tough Interview Question Series Chapter 4 – Preparing for behavioral questions

The hardest part of the interview process is preparing for situational or behavioral questions.  The reason for this is that you really don’t have a clue what will be asked.  How in the world do you prepare for the unknown?  Here are some tips that will allow you to trump your competition.   Become a…

Show your new hires some love

Retention starts before their first day! An effective onboarding program can have a significant impact on your ability to retain great people, help them get up to speed quickly and contribute productively – sooner.  The key is to make each new team member feel important and help remove those new job jitters as quickly as…

Sticky Situation

When is it ok to talk about salary and benefits? I was talking with the team today and we recently had several candidates stumble over the salary/benefit/flex time questions so we thought this might be a good subject for this month’s article.  Here’s the deal – unless you are independently wealthy and a workaholic, you can expect a…

How to Tune-up a Team

Get out of neutral Last month we talked about how your company’s reputation has an impact on the candidate profiles that you attract. That’s great if you are happy with the level at which your team is performing, the personality that emanates from your internal community and the people in that community.  But what if you want to initiate a change? …

Your company’s reputation precedes you

The law of (candidate) attraction I get a lot of comments from hiring managers that they just can’t seem to attract the right people to their open positions.  The perception is that there isn’t good talent out there and that is one of the primary challenges affecting company growth.  While I agree that we need to continue to promote education…