People buy what you believe, not what you do.

That’s the essence of a thought-provoking book by Simon Sinek called ‘Start with Why’.

You can skip reading the book by watching this TedTalk by Sinek here.

Inspired by the book, Jim Crocker of Boardroom Metrics posted a video highlighting the ‘why’ and ‘what I believe’ of Boardroom Metrics here.

First Time CEO is on Ning.

Ning is a social networking platform created by the founder of Netscape.  Users can create their own social networks and contribute to others.

Go here and start your own conversation with other first time CEO’s and others interested in the senior leadership, management and company performance areas.

Some conversations I’d personally love to see.

• what makes a great CEO
• how to interact with the Board of Directors
• how you know when it’s time to move on, step down
• compensation for CEO’s
• how to craft a great vision and mission
• how to go from vision and mission to execution
• and lot’s more.

Let’s chat.

Jim Crocker, CEO of Boardroom Metrics has posted a YouTube video on tips for running an effective planning process.

Having watched many clients waste time and resources on planning that goes nowhere, Crocker’s tips are (once again) simple:

1. start early – planning for 2009 in February is a little late!
2. make planning a priority – there will always be more important things to focus on for the company that isn’t really committed to planning
3. planning is lead by senior management – the CEO in particular should have a clear perspective on what needs to be accomplished in the upcoming year and the key strategies for getting there – engaging the rest of the organization in the process is important but simply tossing planning to others in the organization never works
4. planning and budgeting are inextricably linked – which sounds obvious but gets overlooked – budgets should reflect the allocation of resources necessary to execute the planning priorities – if they don’t, then the plan priorities are just imaginary ideas for making something happen
5. follow-up to make sure the plan is working – too many organizations spend resources on planning then NEVER revisit the plan to measure accomplishments or check direction – which makes planning pretty much a complete waste of time

For people and organizations used to organized, well run planning processes, Crocker’s tips must seem overly simplistic. Unfortunately, they reflect reality – based on Crocker’s experience more companies fail at effective planning than succeed – usually because the simple approach required to execute properly is overlooked.

The video is posted here.

The Boardroom Metrics blog is here.

Jim Crocker, CEO of Boardroom Metrics has started posting some helpful insight on management and leadership on YouTube. His first post on this topic is describes the 5 key elements of the role of the CEO. According to Crocker, they are:

1. defining the vision for the organization
2. assembling (and leading, managing) the management team
3. leading the planning process
4. monitoring progress and reporting to stakeholders
5. articulating the vision to employees, customer, suppliers and investors to engage them in the success of the business.

Obviously, Crocker is simplifying for affect and brevity – the role seems much more complicated than that – but when you think about it, if more CEO’s stuck to what he’s suggesting, they might do a better job.

The YouTube video is here.

A key question when engaging a consultant is their fee and how the project will be priced. In another of his YouTube videos to help manager’s use consultants effectively, Jim Crocker of Boardroom Metrics has posted a video on consulting pricing options.  He lists three options to consider for pricing a consulting project:

1. hourly basis
2. project basis
3. performance basis

The third, involves giving the consultants a share of the upside created by their work. This is a very effective incentive.

The video is posted here.

Jim Crocker, CEO of Boardroom Metrics posted this helpful video on YouTube ‘When to Hire a Consultant’.  Crocker, who has been a consultant for 25 years, keeps it simple. From his perspective, there are 4 key times for hiring a consultant:

1. when you need an answer
2. when you have the answer but need help selling it
3. when you have the answer, but it’s bad news and it’s better for someone else to deliver it
4. when you need help implementing change

Crocker points out that based on his experience, hiring a consultant to help with necessary change has a much greater chance of succeeding than hiring a consultant for ‘nice to do’ change.