I was reading Ego Is the Enemy over the weekend and this passage jumped out at me: “Only you know the race you’re running. That is, unless your ego decides the only […]
Leadership
You’re Always Changing and So Should Your Systems
A big focus for our team this month is going through our processes and systems to make sure they’re working for us rather than against us. Much to my team’s chagrin sometimes, […]
Is Your Strategic Roadmap Too Ambitious?
When you take everything you want to do and start putting that in the quarters and months you actually have available — aka strategic roadmapping — know that the first draft is […]
How Are You Evaluating Your Own Work?
A couple weeks ago I mentioned that we’re building a more solid foundation with metrics on the team. I’ve had some people write in, curious about why that of all things and how […]
How to Build the Delegation Habit
To be an effective leader, manager, or entrepreneur, you have to learn to delegate well. Otherwise, what your team can do is capped by what you can do, your ability to get […]
We Make the Rules for Meetings
I was leading a virtual work session for some program participants today, and a participant apologized for eating during the session. I immediately responded by approving of her decision and encouraging her […]
Two Ways to Lead
There are two ways we can lead: we can be Initiators or we can be Coordinators. Initiators see how the world can be and pull people together to make the world that […]
How to Turn Your Virtual Space into a Home for the Right People
Blogging, social media, and email marketing have made it easier than ever to build communities. There’s just one thing: we don’t understand virtual communities and spaces very well. What we do understand […]
7 Ways to Prevent Dunkirk Spirit from Burning Out Your Team
Have you ever experienced a situation in which, despite terrible planning and decision-making, a team rallies and accomplishes a daunting goal through valiant efforts, long hours, and/or sheer tenacity? Most of us […]
What Every Bootstrapper Can Learn from Basecamp
Earlier this year, Basecamp (formerly 37Signals) announced that they would be slimming down to one product: Basecamp. Doing so meant that they needed to do something with Highrise, their second most profitable […]
A Leader's Job Is to Ensure That Their Team Gets Results
When your involvement stops with the vision and the talking part, your organization can not possibly automatically self optimize to make your strategy happen. Strategy must have action. Strategy without action is just […]
Inaction Stymies Excellence
“Action or inaction are both forms of leadership and standard setting.” – via Seth’s Blog: “This will blow over”. I love that Seth brings up inaction as much as action. Those times when […]
Mind the Gaps: The Five Foundations of Team Performance
“A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame; a little less than his share of the credit.” – Arnold H. Glasgow Do you have a teammate or […]
Five Ways Founders Stifle Business Growth
In the last part of this short series on founder’s mojo, I mentioned that founders’ most important job is to focus on their biggest business growth opportunities, but they’re usually not doing […]
Good Strategy and Leadership Help You Sleep at Night
For more tips and strategies to help you be your productive best, pick up a copy of Charlie’s book Start Finishing, winner of the 2020 Productivity Book of the Year. Available on Amazon and other […]
The Value of the Abundance Mindset in Small Business
[Note from Charlie: Ashley has been working with us since March and this is her first post on the blog. I happened to see her comment to a class participant about this […]
The Founder's Most Important Job
The upshot of understanding founder’s mojo is that you can use it more effectively. Imagine it this way: with one unit of founder’s mojo, either you can do the things that yield […]
Understanding Founder’s Mojo
Working with hundreds of small business owners has gotten me used to noticing and addressing patterns that apply across businesses. One ubiquitous dynamic I’ve seen in my fieldwork involves what I’m calling […]