Archive : Leadership

I love this poem, which describes the paradoxes of being a “Servant-Leader”. Strong enough to be weak Successful enough to fail Busy enough to make time Wise enough to say “I don’t know” Serious enough to laugh Rich enough to be poor Right enough to say “I’m wrong” Compassionate enough to discipline Mature enough to be childlike Important enough to be last Planned enough to be spontaneous Controlled enough to be flexible Free enough to endure captivity Knowledgeable...

 Since I left Dell, I’ve had conversations with several friends who were looking to take  their careers outside of Dell. They asked how I did it nearly 5 years ago. I told them I spent 2 years networking and evaluating ideas outside of Dell.  That’s not to say I didn’t perform during that time…in fact I ran a marketing department and helped grow a $1B business by 50%. However, just by ‘getting out’ I met great people and evaluated several opportunities. At first it...

As a co-founder and one of 20 mentors for Capital Factory, I'm proud and excited to get started our first year with 5 startups! Here's the release that we just put across the wire today! The program starts with these entrepreneurs May 22 going through August. And you can follow all 5 startups on Twitter!@CubitPlanning@FamiGoGames@Homstie @Hourville@PetzMD Capital Factory Invests in Five Startups for 2009 FundAlso Recognizes 5 Additional Finalists Austin, TX (PRWEB) April 22, 2009 —...

Every year my father, Bert Decker (author, entrpereneur, 30-yr communications expert) posts his Top 10 Best and Worst Communicators of the year. This year you will see some twists and surprises. Read the entire blog post here. Ten BEST Communicators of 2008 Barack Obama Tim Russert Randy Pausch    Colin Powell Mike Huckabee John Chambers Sarah Palin "New Communicators" — Nancy Duarte, Garr Reynolds, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin Tina Fey Anderson Cooper Ten WORST...

When you say an employee is a “rockstar” you are saying they will have a great future. They are excelling in their job – that’s a given – but to be a rockstar is to say their career is expected to shoot up like a rockstar’s record on the charts! They will scale, and are competent and trusted enough to do well in almost any job. Obviously you want to be a rockstar and you want to hire a rockstar. So what does a rockstar look like? How do you interview for them? On the plane to San Jose...

Geoffrey Moore is the best selling author of Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado. He will  be in Austin on June 18th speaking to Texchange on the topic of “Provocation-Based Selling: How to Break-and-Enter Established Markets….Even in a Downturn.” This is the first time he has spoken publicly in Austin. Texchange meetings are normally for members only, however this event is open to the public. This event will surely sell out, and this blog posting (along with Austin Startup) is...

Last week I attended and spoke at the Word of Mouth Marketing Summit hosted by WOMMA in Las Vegas (get the presentations here). The conference this year had great energy. Keynotes by Richard Tait of Cranium and Jeff Bell of Microsoft Xbox were inspirational. And it was much more executional-focused than previous years’, perhaps because of the focus on social technologies / online. Many conversations — which I get very interested in — were around the cultural aspects of word of mouth....

Today I was having lunch with a friend who is VP of Marketing for a local startup. Small budget, lots to do…how to prioritize? In my experience, when you’re trying to grow revenue as fast as possible with little time, money and resources, it’s important to think about the after-launch resources a program will take.  Think about any program or initiative as an ongoing P&L. The best projects will have sustaining value, like a business that has sustaining profits. In fact,...

I was interviewing a candidate the other day and we agreed on something that is a truism. The resume is 5% of the equation to hiring great people. I once hired a Web Producer at Dell who was responsible for the Systems / PC portion of the web site (multi-billion dollars of online business). She never bought anything online and didn’t own a computer at home. But…she was competent, curious, creative, and entrepreneurial (meaning she took initiative). She analyzed metrics, came up with new...

I stayed with my Uncle on a business trip to OH the last couple days (we save money wherever we can! . He used to be a C130 pilot in Vietnam, a Colonel in the Airforce, a program manager at Rockwell/Boeing, and is now an MBA professor. In the Airforce he managed a team that acccepted 8,000 page, $5B proposals, and when he went to Boeing he created these proposals. Obviously a $5B project in any organization brings about a tremendous amount of change, on either side. In our many discussions he brought...