Do you want to know why some companies are more innovative, more profitable, command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? It’s because they start by asking “why,” according to Simon Sinek, an ethnographer, author of Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action and speaker (his TED speech is among my favorites).

How to Fix a Micromanaging Nonprofit Board

by Guest Blogger on Apr 30, 2013 - 12:20am

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by Michael Davidson

Does your board spend time secondguessing program decisions, reviewing the merits of various copier machines or discussing the color of this year’s annual report? If the answer is yes, the problem is not just a hazy understanding of “governance” vs. “management.” It’s more complicated than that.

Can Changing How, Where and When We Work Create More Women Leaders

by Geri Stengel on Apr 4, 2013 - 12:20am

Analysis Commentary / Opinion Leadership Small Business telecommuting women entrepreneurs Women Entrepreneurship work flex workplace policies

Recently, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer stirred controversy by ditching the company’s telecommuting policy and requiring employees to report to the office. While many have criticized her decision because it disproportionately affects working mothers, others believe it may save the struggling tech company from obsolescence. To them, Mayer’s decision is justified if it will help Yahoo’s bottom line.

Business Plan Competitions Have 4 Ingredients for Successful Social Enterprise

by Geri Stengel on Dec 4, 2012 - 12:20am

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What do investors know that donors don’t? They know that the right team is critical to growing a thriving organization.

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Fastest Growing Companies Nurture Good Talent

by Geri Stengel on May 17, 2012 - 12:20am

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Perhaps it’s women’s natural instinct to nurture or maybe high-impact entrepreneurs know that you can’t sustain rapid growth without employees who deliver excellent products and customer service. It’s both, according to Marsha Firestone, President of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), which compiled a list of the 50 Fastest Growing Women-Owned/led Companies in North America sponsored by American Express OPEN, it’s both.

Women’s Ways Can Nourish Business Growth

by Geri Stengel on Mar 8, 2012 - 12:20am

Leadership Review Small Business SmartGirls Way women entrepreneurs women-owned businesses women’s wisdom

I’m as concerned as the next person about the failure of women-led businesses to thrive. As the Kauffman Foundation has found, women-owned businesses are an untapped economic resource. So it’s a pleasure to find a book that does two things: helps women entrepreneurs and points out that women don’t need to become more manly in order to succeed.

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4INFO CEO Shares Secrets of Success

by Geri Stengel on Sep 20, 2011 - 12:20am

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One of the best things about working with entrepreneurs is that the good ones are willing to listen and, if they hear something that rings true, they make changes.

Why Aren’t Entrepreneurial American Women Among the World’s Power Brokers?

by Geri Stengel on Sep 8, 2011 - 12:20am

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With all my talk about entrepreneurship being the way to close the gender gap, I was struck by the lack of American female entrepreneurs on the Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful Women.

Integrity Without Social Responsibility Isn't Integrity

by Geri Stengel on Dec 9, 2010 - 7:18am

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The man who symbolizes executive greed as the poster-boy for "integrity?" Yes, according to a columnist for The Harvard Business Review, who seems to accept former head of GE Jack Welch's definition of integrity: being true to who you are and not to think you know more than you do.

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Take a Break! Leaders Benefit From Sabbaticals

by Geri Stengel on Apr 13, 2010 - 11:59am

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So you think you're indispensable. Think again.

A new study by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services shows that non profits and their leaders benefit if the top dog takes time off. The study, Creative Disruptions surveyed the nonprofit leaders who had taken time off, the staff members who replaced them temporarily, and the funders who made it all possible.