Marissa Mayer and Yahoo’s telecommuting policy: Right motivation, wrong execution
When Yahoo! hired Marissa Mayer, I supported the move, believing that the board needed to shake things up, and that given the dismal state of the business, Mayer was probably a better candidate than they could ever have expected to attract. I also supported the move on Mayer’s part; she wasn’t ever going to become [...]
2B or Not 2B
I have worked the majority of my career from various executive suites. As a part of senior management I see many corporate leaders. I am unusual in that much of my early career was not climbing the corporate ladder through successive management ranks. I was an engineer who was happy doing engineering until some unusual [...]
Leaders Who Don’t Support Collaboration Should be Replaced
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing“~ Albert Schweitzer Sometimes I wonder if leaders at companies really understand the power they have, not just from a corporate strategic level but from an employee behavior level. Leaders today’s have a responsibility not only to shareholders but also to the employees [...]
One of the members of LulzSec reported to be an FBI mole
So much for not selling out your gang. It looks like Sabu one of the folks who has been speaking for LulzSec has been secretly working for the FBI according to multiple online reports. Lulzsec has been one of the leading hacking groups and has seriously gone after a ton of people, companies, and others [...]
Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer and Cleopatra–Women Leaders Groomed For Success
I’m reading a biography of Cleopatra and I’m learning some surprising facts about Egypt’s last queen. Cleopatra, who was known for her “wit” and…for being a “prankster,” outlived all of her brothers. In the book she is hailed as a “shrewd strategist and ingenious negotiator.” She was a woman who “reshaped the contours of the [...]
Changing the Molecules of the (Board)room
Every Monday night in a cozy Brown Stone on 39th street a group of New Yorkers congregate. I was once one of these New Yorkers. At exactly 6:15 PM I would climb on the small stage, strike my gavel and start the Toastmasters meeting: Good evening and welcome. The mission of our New York Toastmasters [...]
The Corporate Social Strategist Can’t Move Fast Enough
It will take more than a few Jedi-mind tricks for change agents and social strategists to convince upper management of the value of social. We are years away from where we need to be in corporate America. Yesterday it was reported that Wal-Mart made 3.5 billion dollars in the third quarter–and most of this revenue was coming from overseas operations. With the state of the American economy, social business might be the trick to speed up progress–unfortunately it’s going to have to be much faster than we can comprehend. As it stands innovation is not happening fast enough.
Entrepreneurs Should be Respected, Not Loved
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to be a great leader and seem to be having this conversation a lot lately about Facebook, Yahoo!, Zynga and others. I wrote several of the characteristics when I did the Top 10 (11) Attributes of an Entrepreneur. One thing that I’ve realized over the years [...]
Candid Interview with Brian Solis, Author of Engage
I had the opportunity to speak with and interview Brian Solis (who I’m sure many of you know) about his new book, Engage (Brian also wrote the forward for my book, Twittfaced). I didn’t want to ask the same boring questions that everyone else usually asks, so instead I decided to ask Brian some “serious” [...]
This is where I get to disagree with Louis Gray about leadership
It is not often that I get to disagree with Louis Gray, who is one of the best people to know for any reason. So it is surprising when he writes an article and misses bits and pieces of what makes some companies succeed brilliantly, while other companies settle, settle for anything with a prayer [...]
Follow up and close out of the Month of Startup Hades
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Things are finally starting to return to normal, we had a bumper crop of sales over the last week, and got our internal problems solved. What is interesting is that rather than “go be your creative best” the leadership style had to change over to completely authoritative, here is [...]
Day Two of Startup Hades
Looking for inspiration by reading Marcello’s and Andy’s blogs today. If you do not know, Marcello owned Sampa, and Andy Sack owned Judy’s book. Sampa closed on August 15th, and Judy’s book closed over a year ago, but both are prolific bloggers and have also documented their experiences. Where I am at right now is [...]
A Month of Fail – Lessons in Startup Management
Image by lumaxart via Flickr Ever had one of those exceptional months were you have not only caught the fail boat, but threw a fail boat party and no one else showed up? This is the world of failure, deep hard core failure that you have to step back from many of the things you [...]
