John Mellencamp’s hit song, “Rain on the Scarecrow” chronicle the decline of the small American farmer in the 1980s. Farmers faced economic devastation caused by new technology and emerging international competitors. Expensive new machinery and international competition transformed farming from a sleepy vocation handed down between...
If you don’t have these measures, get them, or turn in your CEO title. If, as a value pricer, you’ve sworn off practice metrics based on productivity, you’ll learn nothing from this article. You just don’t have the numbers. Mark Cuban is on hold waiting...
Your final role as CEO is visionary. This differs from your role as strategist, as the visionary role deals with the long-term future of your firm. This is the fun part, if you really relish your role as CEO. Consider your firm a blank canvas on...
Your role as chief communicator is closely related to your traffic cop role. In the traffic cop role, we covered prodding clients to keep projects moving along, but there is more to client communications than just moving projects along to completion. How many times per day...
To recap, your first role as CEO is chief strategist. That means putting the right people in the right roles with the right resources. Your second role is trainer and coach. This role is closely related to your role as chief strategist. You can’t put the...
We have talked about putting the right people in the right places. Let’s discuss giving them the right resources Little angers me as much as getting cheap when it comes to giving staff what they need. Here’s an example from my wife’s career as a federal...
Please have a seat. No, not that one. Take the one next to me. All of us are here because we love you to death. We only want the best for you. But we can no longer stand by and watch you suffer. When you...
You can divide staff into four categories: administrative, entry-level preparer, advanced preparer and manager. I’m tempted to state that administrative employees are the most important people in your firm. I won’t go quite that far, but your administrative staff are every bit the face of your...
Finding full-time staff is a different beast altogether. Avoid recruiters. Most of their candidates are looking for jobs for good reasons. Nearly all of a recruiter’s candidates’ resumes will have the following job histories: Job 1: 1.5 years (This company sucked.) Job 2: 6 months (This company...
Let’s start with what doesn’t work: clients late for meetings, phone tag, and e-mail hell. If your primary communications methods are: meetings, phone calls, and e-mail, you’re losing out on a lot of money and a saner life. 21st century clients want all the same things...