Blog
How AI Chatbots Can Boost Your Content Creation
AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard can help you create better content faster and more easily by providing relevant feedback, reasoning and resources. This post shares tips and considerations for using AI chatbots to develop content gleaned from experience during a recent IntelliVen content and community development project for a San Francisco-based, fast-growing startup … Continue reading How AI Chatbots Can Boost Your Content Creation
Diligence Support for Federal Sector
If you are looking for opportunities to invest in firms that provide professional services and software to the U.S. federal government, you know how challenging it can be to assess the potential and risks of these businesses. Working with the federal government is not just another market, it is more like a different planet. Everything … Continue reading Diligence Support for Federal Sector
Optimizing Your Board of Directors: A Guide for Fast-Growing Private Companies
Growing private companies often encounter challenges in establishing an effective board of directors. Typically, boards comprise well-meaning individuals who meet periodically, usually for a few hours up to a couple of days. However, these meetings frequently become sessions to celebrate company successes rather than critically examining company performance against its board-approved plans and strategic initiatives … Continue reading Optimizing Your Board of Directors: A Guide for Fast-Growing Private Companies
4 Steps to Engaging Communities to Build Better Products
Tech companies constantly need to decide which products and features they should develop next to drive the most value for users. Listening to and elevating the Voice of the Customer through a community-based approach is an ideal way to inform their decision-making, especially when better meeting current user needs accelerates value. As David Spinks shares … Continue reading 4 Steps to Engaging Communities to Build Better Products
Sales — whose problem is it anyway?
Background A credible organization consistently performs and grows according to a plan. Such an organization will invariably be a system of three systems: A system of delivery. A system of sales. A system of growth in capacity to deliver and to sell. It is not uncommon for an early-stage organization to be good at delivery … Continue reading Sales — whose problem is it anyway?
How Our Brains’ Hidden Process Can Sabotage Feedback
Feedback is about both performance and perception. For constructive feedback to be received well, and to promote intended change, it helps to understand some things about how our brain works. Our brain makes meaning of the world around us, help us decide the appropriate action for a given situation, and create learning to build a … Continue reading How Our Brains’ Hidden Process Can Sabotage Feedback
What to Do When Your Employees Want More Communication
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This post was initially drafted by Bing using ChatGPT-4 connected to intelliven.com in response to a client question. See end notes for more. Communication is essential for any organization to succeed. It helps align goals, foster collaboration, build trust, and resolve conflicts. However, many leaders struggle to communicate effectively with their employees, especially … Continue reading What to Do When Your Employees Want More Communication
Achieve Influence Beyond Your Station: A High Impact Strategy for Emerging Executives
Emerging executives often find themselves in situations where they must engage with senior sales prospects, clients, suppliers, partners, or colleagues. Typically, their level of comfort determines how they interact, and when facing someone more senior, feelings of anxiety and insecurity can arise. This often results in holding back, saying less, and ultimately achieving less impact … Continue reading Achieve Influence Beyond Your Station: A High Impact Strategy for Emerging Executives
Five Steps to Turn a Prospect into a Sale
Developing a systematic approach to cultivating demand for its products and services is a key step in the evolution of every successful organization. Many early-stage leaders long for a silver-bullet solution; that is, they look to hire someone with a lot of contacts and an extroverted personality to hit the market and drum-up demand. Such … Continue reading Five Steps to Turn a Prospect into a Sale
Will you make sure you and your team accomplish the most important thing in the coming year?
Leadership Offsites focus the top team for growth and performance as the current year closes and the next one starts. Offsites are typically of two types: Plan Change – Identify what needs to be done differently to perform better and / or grow faster. Initiative-to-Action – Launch the most important initiative(s). Kurt Lewin, the father of Organization … Continue reading Will you make sure you and your team accomplish the most important thing in the coming year?
The #1 problem with teams is not what you think
Every leader needs to know that they and their team agree on the problem they solve for whom. While this seems simple enough, in practice almost nobody in their organization answers in exactly the same way, and even small differences can disrupt operations. Examples, practice cases, and your own case reveal that even well-known firms … Continue reading The #1 problem with teams is not what you think
How to Access Manage to Lead System Workstreams and Tutorials
Manage to Lead (MtL) is a system of integrated tools, methods, and principles that executive teams use to pave and follow a reliable path to architect, build, govern, and change their organization for breakthrough improvements in performance and growth. Users frequently comment on how helpful MtL Tools are when preparing: A Business Plan An Investor … Continue reading How to Access Manage to Lead System Workstreams and Tutorials