Is great leadership a requirement?
Let’s not assume that great leaders are necessary for success! Success in business requires a number of ingredients and if you get some of them right, you can make progress. I like to cook and occasionally I produce something that is pretty good, maybe even darn good, just not as good as it could...
Empowering authentic community engagement
If you’re still debating the importance of community stewardship as a value proposition, the overwhelming research confirms a surprising, additional audience – employees. While generating goodwill and positive solutions, community engagement also is improving employee recruitment, retention and loyalty. And for businesses asking how to attract and retain the millennial generation, the answer is simple: […][...]
Five ways to maximize confidence…
Enhancing general self-confidence involves learning to strengthen the confident part of the brain (the confident neural network) while weakening the fearful part of the brain (the fearful neural network). This is the long-term foundation of greater self-confidence. In addition to building a strong...
Lessons from a $15 million verdict
A Colorado federal jury reportedly awarded $15 million recently to 11 workers who claimed they had been subject to workplace harassment, discrimination and retaliation because of their race and national origin. What can you learn from this significant discrimination verdict? Even if the verdict is...
Best of CoBiz: Only good managers get to manage
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from business performance improvement expert Larry Valant’s book, Stop Breaking These Rules! 100 Hard-Hitting Truths for Business Integrity and Performance. Only good managers get to manage. In most organizations good managers are rare. The percentage of really good managers (if all the managers in all the companies in America […]
Success from a shoestring
In 1997, a Steamboat Springs-based snowboarder named Gary Hammerslag had one of those insights that makes consumers lives’ easier and entrepreneurs wealthy. Hammerslag saw something that wasn’t there, a niche nobody had noticed.
Best of CoBiz: Five great ways to keep employees engaged
People's engagement with work is directly affected by their experience within their organization. In other words, if you are the manager, you are responsible for creating an engaging work climate. If you don't want turnover to be the next drain on your budget, keep these tips in mind:
Four numbers that equal success
In our business lives, the start of a new fiscal year causes us to look ahead to what we want to accomplish. But I don’t believe you have to wait until Jan. 1 to set resolutions that will change your personal or professional path.
Three tips to spur innovation
Economists and business leaders acknowledge that openness to disruption is key to creative innovation, but many companies struggle with it. To get a better understanding of how a company can spur creativity, we talked with Michel Laprise, director of KURIOS - Cabinet of Curiosities, Cirque du Sole...
Stay nimble to nurture success
Questions about experience are common when a business is on the hunt for a potential agency or firm. ‘How many other health care companies have you worked with?’ ‘How many finance-related companies?’ For many, prior experience is what proves competence. But that mentality can work to the detriment...
How to put more women in leadership
Lakshmi Puri recently told the United Nations that gender equality is “humanity’s biggest project.” In the U.S., Women comprise about 47 percent of the total workforce but hold only 14 percent of senior executive positions and 17 percent of board seats. It is important to maintain focus on the ess...
The evolution of the mentor
When we started Techstars in 2006, the concept of a mentor was very fuzzy. There were many people who called themselves “advisors” to startups, including the entire pantheon of service providers. While the word mentor existed, it was usually a 1:1 relationship, where an individual had a “mentor”....