Solutions 21 Blog
Check out our latest insights in leadership
CEO equals CLO
In any business, from startup to Fortune 500, the CEO is the only individual who is peerless. (Of course, I am dismissing the rare exception when co-CEOs exist.) Overwhelmingly, a CEO has no equal within the organization. If we accept the challenge that our best...
Time and energy: continuous and intentional investments
The leadership decade requires leaders to accept the fact that a major part of their role as leaders is to invest time and energy into individuals’ continuous leadership improvement. In order to succeed as a leader, it will be critical to be extraordinarily...
Your leadership brand superpower
In the 1980s and 1990s, people joined organizations, not people. Folks joined organizations and did not dig deeply into whom they worked for and what they would be working on. In the 20th century, “name brand” companies like IBM and Xerox had an advantage by having...
Leadership, leadership, leadership
One of the biggest challenges a business owner has is determining where to allocate expense dollars. In Fortune 500 companies, budgets are set, and departments can spend the budgeted money. The money belongs to thousands of shareholders with which there is rarely any...
Penny wise and pound foolish
In March 2015, Bill Gates delivered a TED Talk, where he seemed to predict the global pandemic, COVID-19. Nearly everything he talked about during that video became a reality in 2020. During his 2015 presentation, Gates did not know exactly how much of an investment...
The Leadership Decade
I am a big believer in starting with the end in mind. Therefore, let’s lay out, right up front, what you'll be hearing from me and our team over the next several months. In short, we'll be talking about leadership, especially leadership in mid-market firms. In the...
The right way to practice
I have spent much of my time in my years at Solutions 21 explaining discipline, work ethic, and leadership development to business owners. I recently became a bit more enlightened on these topics one Saturday morning on the golf course. A buddy of mine...
Over-communicating
“I’ve been over-communicating with my team.” During various organizations’ responses to the coronavirus, we’ve heard this statement from nearly every leader, manager, or supervisor with whom we work. To push back: it’s not over-communicating. You’re now devoting...
Personal growth and development: it’s a process
Throughout my life, I’ve been fascinated with leadership and leader development. Prior to joining Solutions 21, I spent over 24 years in the military building and developing leaders, teams, and organizations all around the world. I guess that’s why I love my current...
It’s time to sprint
I may be showing my age, but I can still remember teaching one of my first strategic management courses at the local university back in the late 1990s. The concept of business strategy has always been a main topic in any management course. However, over the years, the...