The ideas in this post I just put up on PebbleStorm are relevant to any CEO or executive who’s working at building a long-term company and wants to sustain their motivation and energy. It’s probably not as relevant if your exit horizon is less than six months or a year, although I feel you could […]
Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi is the widely recognized guru of “flow” and the author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Below are some of his definitions & attributes of flow. CEOFlow helps CEOs get into the flow by empowering them and their organizations to make money through enjoyment. The “make money through enjoyment” part is specific […]
1) Be PATIENT. Developing a sales engine that predictably generates revenue can take 12-24+ months, depending on the state of your company. Even any one new program in b2b sales can take 3-6 months to be defined, show measured progress, and become integrated & habitual (i.e. machine-like). 2) Experiment. With everything. Constantly. …Full post on […]
Which kind of company would you rather build (or work in): 1) A company in which the CEO inspires the employees, or 2) A company in which the employees inspire the CEO (and each other)? One screams exhaustion to me, the other, enjoyment.
Back in July I had dinner with some founder friends in San Francisco. Chris Kenton, a true expert on social media and CEO of www.socialrep.com, wrote up a blog post about it: “As often as possible I try to spend time with smart people who make me think differently and deeply about what I’m doing […]
I sent the RSVPs out this evening, so if you didn’t get one but should have, or you haven’t reached out yet and want to attend…send me a note at aaron [at] ceoflow [dot] com. Los Angeles CEOFlow Dinner Theme: “Push vs. Pull Management Systems” and increasing inherent employee motivation. Date: Tuesday, September 9th Time: […]
Last Wednesday, we had conference call with about eight CEOs on the topic of transparency – both internally and externally. Here’s a summary of some of the highlights. 1) More transparency is better with investors and the board. OK, this isn’t new news for many readers here, but it can be a valuable reminder for […]
Intrinsic (internal) versus extrinsic (external) motivation A significant contributor to a state of CEOFlow is an environment in which employees are motivated primarily intrinsically by their own work, enjoyment and purpose (all in alignment with the organization of course!)…rather than motivated primarily by extrinsic motivators like fear, exaggerated incentives or control. While 100% intrinsic motivation […]
I sketched these out yesterday, on the 4th of July. Funny – I it didn’t occur to me until now that I was was sketching a form of CEO Freedom on Independence Day! “Board” (also including any investors and advisors) and “Employees” (which includes executives) are self-explanatory, but here are two short descriptions of what […]
Semco is a company that has been incredibly inspirational to me – I love it! However, some people get the creepy-crawlies when they learn about it and how the executives let go of control: “Semco has no official structure. It has no organizational chart. There’s no business plan or company strategy, no twoyear or five-year […]
The ends of the push v pull management motivation spectrum are: There are some fundamental management values or operating principles that a CEO and managers can take to heart to move their culture away from push and closer to pull: Trust, Transparency and Alignment. The CEO must be the one to lead by example in […]
Recently, James Surowiecki wrote here about Toyota and their consistent march to the top in the car industry. There’s one paragraph that really stands out as important to absorb: According to Matthew May, the author of a book about the company called “The Elegant Solution,” Toyota implements a million new ideas a year, and most […]