A few weeks ago, the Harvard Business Review ran an article titled, “It’s Time to Acknowledge CEO Loneliness.”

It’s an interesting article that discusses extravagant compensation packages, fancy jets and hotels, mansions for homes, and car services. All while feeling very lonely because, as a leader of an organization, you seemingly have no one on your side.

I recommend you read it.

But the most interesting part of the article is in the comments.

You see, people don’t feel sorry for CEOs. The perception is they have all this money so why should it matter they’re lonely?

In fact, one commenter said, “My heart bleeds for the lonely, misunderstood CEO.  I’m sure someone making three hundred times my salary is in need of some tender loving care and understanding.  So let me tell these guys where to find sympathy:  In Webster’s, somewhere between s*** and syphilis.” Continue Reading »

Yes, I know it’s Facebook question of the week time, but we’re trying something new this week.

You see, Social Fresh wrote last week about the best times of the week and day to blog, in order to get social shares.

Historically, Mondays and Tuesdays on Spin Sucks are our big days, but the Social Fresh research proves we might be missing something on Thursdays.

I’m curious to see if a blog post runs at 8 a.m. and the video runs at noon, if there is a difference both in traffic and social shares.

So Lisa Gerber has answered Barry Silver’s Facebook question and that will run at noon.

This morning, however, you get an intellectual discussion about when to determine it’s time to fire a client. Continue Reading »

Today’s post is written by Brian Tolle.

Communication can either be the death knell to accomplishing great things or the clarion call-to-action.

Those who “get” the clarion call and use clear cut and precise language are great leaders: They can marshal the great forces of their team to bring in huge new business wins and manage even the most unruly clients.

Those who assert their leadership position by being elusive and mysterious, who use their position rather than their communication skills to manage, are leaders in name only.

How do you become the first? How do you work with the second, no matter your position?

I’ve studied this dark and nefarious art form for 15 years, and I have written about it recently in a book that will help managers become effective leaders by understanding how to tune their communication to the four basic behavioral styles they encounter in the workplace. Continue Reading »

Steve Jobs resigned last week. This is likely not news to you. But what is interesting is it likely will cripple the consumer electronics industry.

Spending quite a bit of time on the speaking circuit, I constantly hear from leaders that they’re afraid to use the web for business reasons because they don’t want the competition to know what they’re doing. Continue Reading »

Up at 5 a.m. Check email, Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn groups and discussions, text messages, blog traffic, web traffic, and PostRank analytics all while brushing your teeth and feeding kids or pets.

Make time to exercise, do some writing, get ready for work.

Work a full day.

Rush home to make and have dinner with your family.

Check email, Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn groups and discussions, text messages, blog traffic, web traffic, and PostRank analytics.

Sleep by 11 p.m. Do it again the next day.

How familiar does this sound? Maybe there is a tweak or two in there, but if you’re an entrepreneur, your days are long, your weeks are long, your months are long, and your years fly by while you’re left wondering where your time went. Continue Reading »

Some of you may not know that I grew up in Utah. The inevitable question, after I tell people that is, “Are you Mormon?”

Yes, I was raised Mormon. Through a series of family events and some hypocrisy with some of the members in our ward, I stopped going to church when I was 18, right before I graduated from high school. And then I went to a Catholic university (Creighton), where I was required to take a different theology course every semester.

Because of that, I learned (and grew to believe) in other philosophies; other theories.

I’ve never found my way back to the church. I am what one would call a Jack Mormon (not that they label or judge people for decisions made outside of the church).

But I’m always drawn to stories, articles, and leadership lessons from the Mormon faith. It’s true I’ve been away from the church longer than I was in it, but it’s still my roots. Continue Reading »

My good friend Troy Claus asked me to write this for his blog, where he has a fabulous series called “The Entrepreneur’s Journey.” So, if you read it there first, there is nothing new to see here. Move along until tomorrow.

It’s a very vivid memory. Sitting in the conference room at Fleishman-Hillard with our Ocean Spray clients. There are five or six three-inch binders full of media placements sitting in the middle of the table.

The artwork we’d commissioned to showcase the beauty of the cranberry harvest was strategically placed around the conference room. The stationery, with the same art, signified seating assignments.

It was the first grown-up meeting I’d been invited to attend with this client.

Sure, I’d had lots of meetings with the PR director, but never with her boss or her boss’s boss. It was intimidating.

But we were ready! Continue Reading »

Back to our regularly scheduled programming, albeit a week late. I’ve been thinking about this series and I know it’s being received well because of the traffic numbers, but I hate “Top Five Stories for Week Ending XXX.”

We need a new name. Danny Brown has Sunday Brunch. Beth Harte has Saturday Morning Reads. Lisa Barone has Weekend Coffee Links. Ingrid Abboud has SuperPost Sunday. And Mitch Joel has Six Links Worthy of Your Attention.

When we began this series, we named it Top Five Stories for SEO reasons (and because Danny hadn’t come up with something I could steal). But I hate it.

So…what’s more Gini like? What’s more Spin Sucks like? What’s more Gini + Spin Sucks + Weekly Stories = …. ??

I could just name it Monkeys, Ice Cream, and Everything In Between (because, let’s be real, monkeys and ice cream are awesome, but monkeys eating ice cream is even better), but that doesn’t really tell me what I’m about to read if I’m new here.

You tell me. What would you name the series? It runs every Friday at noon (except this week because of the Kenneth Cole fiasco) and it’s always the top five stories we think you should read. Continue Reading »

Guest post by Robert Herzog, chief financial officer at Harrison College.

Chaos. You’ve been there. How did you handle it as a leader? A recent Twitter conversation between Gini Dietrich and me around the “Jay vs. Conan” debate helped illuminate a few points for me on how to lead – and not lead – in times of chaos.

As Conan started his new show on TBS recently, the untold story of the “Tonight Show” debacle (chronicled in this insightful Vanity Fair article) was that the whole situation could have been different if the NBC executives had led differently. Let’s discuss in comments, but I believe they made two key errors. Continue Reading »

It’s an interesting time at Arment Dietrich right now. We have the AD team and we have the Project Jack Bauer team and some of us are straddling both. To say I’m doing a great job at leading both teams is being overly nice. And because I’m not doing a great job, it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about and talking about with individuals on both teams. I’ve come to the conclusion that not only am I not leading both teams effectively, I’m not managing the change of adding a new business effectively.

When most people think about getting buy-in for their ideas, they think about it from the perspective of going to their boss with a great idea and having it shot down. There are plenty of books and articles written about how to present your idea to either your boss or the executive team to get buy-in. I suggest you take some time to read them if you really believe you have an idea and want to get buy-in.

But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the change or the idea coming form the top and not getting buy-in. If you’re an employee, think about how frustrating it is when you have an idea that is shot down. If you’re a business leader, have you ever had to institute change that you really believe in, but no one else did? That’s the kind of emotion I want you to feel as you read this. Continue Reading »