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Leadership Lessons | Delaying the tough call only makes it worse

What Does It Take to be a Great Leader?

We’re always sharing valuable and practical leadership tips and tools to help you BE a better leader so you can BECOME a better leader. Remember … you won’t BECOME a better leader until you start BEING a better leader … implementing NOW the changes necessary to adopt the proven strategies of successful leaders. You might start by building on the communication matrix and making sure you’re defending the castle to get done what only you can do. Make sure to take some time so you’re thinking past today. Don’t forget our 12 part Leadership series.

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Do it quickly, don’t look back … and move on

Remember how Mom used to say: “You know better than that?”

It wasn’t that we were ignorant or unaware of what was supposed to be done. Quite the contrary. We knew damn well what we were supposed to do but we just didn’t want to do it. Why not?

Why don’t we do what we know we should do?

That’s the eternal conundrum, isn’t it my friends? Why don’t we do what we know we must do? (more…)

Personal Productivity: Capture all of the randomness

A Weekly Personal Productivity series to help you get more done!Every Thursday, I'm sharing a new Personal Productivity Tip to help you get more done. Each Productivity Tip is a…

Leadership Lessons | Are Incentives the Cornerstone of Life?

Does your incentive program REALLY drive performance?

You probably know someone, don’t you, who is a star performer who believes that her achievements go unrewarded?

If so, you probably also know an underachiever who gets more than he deserves.I

s there any greater disincentive to the high performer than knowing that under-performance seems to be equally rewarded?

Should there be a moratorium on bonuses?

I’ve talked about the value of incentives before, but it keeps coming to mind as I talk to senior executives who don’t seem to have spent any time at all considering whether their incentive plans are working as intended … or whether they need to be revised.

In some ways, it reminds me of the comment that Bloomberg attributed to Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, during the $20 billion bonus scandals during the 2008-2009 financial meltdown.

According to Bloomberg, this was his comment … (more…)

Business Finance | Warren Buffett | Should We Depreciate Our People?

A Weekly Business Finance series for Non-Finance Executives!

“Financial Adrenaline” is a term we love around here because it reflects our commitment to help you turbocharge your business with practical tips and techniques to improve free cash flow, the lifeblood of business. As a further extension of our Financial Adrenaline program, we’re going to share a new Business Finance Tidbit every Wednesday specifically for those business executives who don’t have a finance background.

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Depreciation = Cash? Why do we care?

We’ve kinda been on a Warren Buffett tear lately, and last week I encouraged you to read his recent 2010 Annual Report to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.

I want to plant another seed this week about an often misunderstood concept: DEPRECIATIONIn accounting, an expense recorded to allocate a tangible asset's cost over its useful life. Because depreciation is a non-cash expense, it increases free cash flow while decreasing reported earning. It is used in accounting to try to match the expense of an asset to the income that the asset helps the company earn. For example, if a company buys a piece of equipment for $1 million and expects it to have a useful life of 10 years, it will be depreciated over 10 years. Every accounting year, the company will expense $100,000 (assuming straight-line depreciation), which will be matched with the money that the equipment helps to make each year.. (You can see the definition by placing your cursor over the term.)

How is Depreciation Relevant to EBITDA?

Today, let’s just think about it in terms of EBITDA. In Does EBITDA Bury Its Own Dead?, I wrote about the perils of treating EBITDA as a placeholder for cash flow, and Buffett couldn’t agree more.

In his Annual Letter to Shareholders, 2002, Buffet describes (more…)