Build a great team

Build a great team. Surround yourself with the best people you can find, attract and retain. If you are good (ideally great) at what you do, you want people who are amazing at what they do, preferably, in areas that are not your strengths. Furthermore, don’t simply post a job description on your website and wait for applicants. Instead, leverage …

Eliminate bottlenecks, beginning with yourself

Eliminate bottlenecks, beginning with yourself and empower people to get things done. While some items (major accounts and contracts, legal, IP,…) might require your involvement and approval, most daily responsibilities should not depend on your availability. It is essential to empower your teams and provide them with the authority they need to get their daily and weekly responsibilities accomplished. Trust …

This is a team: in or out?

Business is a team sport. All top performing organizations have arrived there through a lot of work by a lot of people, never a single individual alone. Furthermore, on many teams, certain star players with particular functional (technical) skills have been know to take advantage of the environment they are in. This behavior should not be tolerated and allowed as …

Don’t blame others, it’s all you

Don’t blame anyone else for your performance, as it is YOUR performance. While I have said this time and time again, I was reminded of it and humbled by it a few days ago as a number of people have been waiting on my contributions in order for certain processes to move forward. It was all me, my fault, my …

Build a great team, they are your reflection

The quality of your team, their performance and contributions are directly related to you as a leader. In a sense, they are a reflection of you. You set standards, expectations and instill values across your team and as such you need to use caution in the initial selection process. Furthermore, you need to provide them resources they need to be …

Business logic goes before technology

Business logic, processes and policies need to be in place before a technological solution can be selected. Additionally, start from the desired outcome then reverse engineer the process and steps needed to get there. During this process you must establish ownership and accountability of each of the steps and a clear timeline and what happens when and by whom. Only …