You are doing all the right things. Looking at the market the target company controls. Looking at the competition in their market area. Studying their product line. Assessing the quality of their buildings. Setting a value on their equipment.

So what’s missing here?

Warren Buffett said recently that when he invests in a company, he doesn’t pay attention to the management. My guess is that he has two thoughts. One is that he can change force changes in management anytime after he controls the company. The other is that he is assessing the present and potential future value of the company.  Read the full article...

If you sense a problem in your team, congratulations!

Now you are looking for a quick, simple solution to the problem. For a lot of leaders, they believe the problem is solved by hiring a consultant or buying the latest fad.

No, that is not the answer. You have to be a leader and find out what is really causing the problem.

I will absolutely guarantee you that you will find the source of your problem in one or more of the following ways:

• Poor management
• Poorly trained employees
• Poorly trained supervisors
• Dumb policies  Read the full article...

My guess is that if I polled a bunch of HR people, I would find a vast majority of them hate doing periodic performance reviews and hate having to insist that the supervisors in their organizations conduct them. Am I right? Of course I am. My thinking?

I question the wisdom of insisting on a process with so little apparent value!  Read the full article...

Let’s talk about your new role as a leader. When you assumed that new role, you were pretty excited about it. Your significant other, family and friends congratulated you on the promotion. So your natural assumption is that everyone else would be happy about it too, right?  Read the full article...

The age old tradition is to use discipline as a means of changing behavior. The term “discipline” is typically associated with union contracts and has the usual verbal warning, written warning, suspension, and finally termination. There are many variations of this method such as paid suspensions, or two written warnings, but most pretty much follow this method.

I challenge that traditional method. The further you go into that progression, the less chance there is of changing the behavior.  Read the full article...