Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

           These quotes truly inspire me and hopefully they will inspire you as well : “The three common characteristics of best companies -- they care, they have fun, they have high performance expectations.” -- Brad Hams “The one thing that's common to all successful people: They make a habit of doing things that unsuccessful people don't like to do.” -- Michael Phelps “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." -- Harry S. Truman “The leader of the past was a person who knew how to tell. The leader of the future will be a person who knows how to ask.” -- Peter Drucker “Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” -- Dwight D. Eisenhower “Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself.  It's about advancing your team.” -- John C. Maxwell "People buy into the leader, then the vision.” -- John C. Maxwell “Great leaders have courage, tenacity and patience.” -- B...

I post this every year on or near Father's Day because the business and life lessons my father taught me stay with me forever. What he taught me has served me well--even lessons I learned when I didn't at the time necessarily realize I was learning from him. So, I thank my dad for teaching me the following business and life lessons : Listen - Growing up, I thought my Dad was perhaps shy or quiet. Really, he was just a great listener. I believe that's what made him so wise. He would listen to anyone. Young or old. New acquaintance or friend. Provide - My Dad provided for me. Music lessons. Vacations. Summer camp. Boy Scouts.  He gave. He put others' needs first. Today, I find in volunteering likely the same satisfaction he felt when he provided for his family. Educate - My Dad's passion was education. He loved to learn. He loved even more to teach. He lived to help other people learn. In the workplace, providing learning opportunities is one of the most powerful ...

Julie Averill , the CIO behind lululemon’s rapid growth from $2 billion to $10 billion shares in her new book, Chief Impact Officer , a roadmap for executives and technology leaders navigating today's AI revolution and reveals why authentic human leadership is your competitive advantage.   Prior to lululemon, she led omni-channel and digital transformations at Nordstrom and REI, navigating system failures, crises, and the complicated work of integrating technology with business strategy at scale.   “Technology doesn’t transform companies. People do,” says Averill. “AI will amplify whatever leadership exists, strong or weak. The goal isn’t to build better workers. It’s to develop better humans who happen to do extraordinary work because you helped them become more capable, more confident, more fully themselves. That’s what this book is about.”   In the highly personal Chief Impact Officer , Averill pulls back the curtain on what happens when you try to transform a compan...

Nearly everyone I know has shared a story about a difficult person they’ve encountered in their workplace. Experiencing difficult individuals in the workplace is common. So common that author Amy Gallo identifies eight archetypes , each representing a common type of “difficult” person likely found in most workplaces.  “We might lie awake at night worrying, withdraw from work, or react in ways we later regret—rolling our eyes in a meeting, snapping at colleagues, or staying silent when we should speak up,” says Gallo.   "Too often we grin and bear it as if we have no choice. Or throw up our hands because one-size-fits-all solutions haven't worked. But you can only endure so much thoughtless, irrational, or malicious behavior—there's your sanity to consider, and your career,” adds Gallo.   Fortunately, Gallo shares in her book, Getting Along , practical insights, tools, and techniques for how to get along with each type of difficult co-worker you’ll likely encounter....

  Today brings the new book, Effective: How To Do Great Work In A Fast-Changing World , by Melissa Swift . “Effectiveness is where employer and employee interests come together—you want to be great at accomplishing the goals of your job, and your employer wants that too,” explains Swift. “It’s also a place where we can bring together different organizational and developmental thinking to help move people to action.”   In the book, Swift, founder of Anthrome Insight , draws on current research and provocative interviews with business and academic leaders to help readers understand how to be amazing in a working world seemingly designed to make us feel incompetent.   Each chapter in Effective delivers actionable approaches, enabling readers to improve their daily work life immediately with a paradigm-shifting framework for thriving rather than merely coping in modern professional environments.   The book serves professionals at every level of seniority, from e...

  “Most companies don’t fail because their product is substandard. They fail because the market doesn’t understand, care, or believe in what they’re selling,” explains Bruce Cleveland , author of the new book, Market Engineering . He adds that this dilemma is “because somewhere between the product development and the customer, the story got lost, the positioning drifted, or their category was defined by somebody else and the market went to another company.” That means, every year, startups and enterprises pour millions into building world-class products--only to watch them disappear into obscurity.  In the book, Silicon Valley veteran Cleveland reveals the discipline behind market-dominating companies like Salesforce, Marketo, and C3 AI. Drawing on decades of experience as an operator, investor, and board member, Cleveland demonstrates how leaders can apply the same rigor to markets that they bring to products. You'll discover how to: Compel markets to come to you instead of c...