Tag Archives: CEO

Put Yourself In The Running

If there is something you want badly enough, my advice is this: put yourself in the running. Even if you don’t get chosen, you will get noticed. I was constantly looking for great people to fill management positions within the company. Even though growth is a huge blessing for a company, it can also be […]

Admitting You Were Wrong Doesn’t Make You Weak – It Makes You Awesome

It takes tremendous fortitude to utter the words “I was wrong, and I am sorry.” I love that word: fortitude. I could list the dictionary definition, but why go to that trouble when there’s Microsoft Word’s handy one-click synonym function, which in fortitude’s case gives us: strength, courage, resilience, grit, determination, endurance, guts, and staying […]

Good Employees Make Mistakes, Great Leaders Allow Them To.

Each day this week I’ve been sharing different excerpts from the book I wrote titled “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel In Business & Life” in my blog posts. Today I’ll be sharing an excerpt from Chapter 8: Good Employees Make Mistakes, Great Leaders Allow Them To. As a business leader, I found that […]

Work/Life Balance – The Eternal Struggle.

Work / Life Balance – it’s the eternal struggle we all strive for but never seem to feel like we have right. I really love the talk given by Coca Cola CEO Brian Dyson back in 1996 at a Georgia Tech commencement ceremony where he shared his analogy of the five balls we are all […]

Mistreating Customers Could End Up More Disastrous For Companies Then The Coronavirus Is

We no longer live in a day where companies taking advantage, misleading, or mistreating customers goes unnoticed.   And now, more than ever, consumers are paying attention to how companies are treating their customers. That is evident by the flood of social media posts with customers sharing details of how specific companies are mistreating and taking […]

It’s A Dis-Service To Keep Someone In a Job They Aren’t Good At

One thing I learned many years ago is that you do a dis-service to an individual by leaving them in a role where they are not succeeding.  Some people don’t succeed due to their own faults, and others don’t succeed simply because they are not the right match for the position they have been placed […]

Don’t Leave Work Until Five (by Ashley Anderson Hill)

My husband had to be rushed to the hospital this evening (he’s having severe stomach pain) so my daughter Ashley agreed to cover tonight’s blog post for me. Not gonna sugar coat it, it’s been a rough night…but I’m grateful for the doctors and nursing who are working hard to figure out what’s wrong. Here’s […]

Think You Are Too Small To Be Effective?

“If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito.” —Betty Reese When talking with employees of an organization you will often discover that the rank and file employees within the organization are far more aware of the problems going on then the management is.  And […]

Leaders: Clean Your Leadership House

“Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience.”   -Dee Hock, founding CEO of Visa International I couldn’t agree with Dee’s statement more.  The following is an excerpt taken from a Forbes Article I wrote: “As a former CEO myself with the […]

Passive Aggressive Behavior Will Destroy A Company’s Culture

Back on March 6, 2013 I wrote an article in Forbes Called Passive Aggressive Behavior Will Destroy A Company’ Culture. That article rings as relevant today as it did back then. It reads: Passive-aggressive behavior in any company is one of the most destructive cancers to a culture that ends up killing both a great company, and the self-esteem of […]

Speak The Truth

Years ago I wrote an article for Forbes called Speak The Truth Even If Your Voice Shakes which talked about the importance of giving people honest feedback in a respectful way, even at times it feels uncomfortable or  intimidating to do so.  In the article I shared seven lessons I’d learned about giving feedback and […]

Give People A Reason Not To Forget You

Today I traveled up to Utah State University in Logan Utah to give the keynote speech to several hundred incoming freshman students to kick-off Orientation.  The event was held in a big auditorium and the students filed into the auditorium in their different orientation groups.  As the program began the emcee let everyone know he […]

Work hard at your job you can make a living. Work hard on yourself and you can make a fortune.

“Work hard at your job and you can make a living. Work hard on yourself and you can make a fortune.” — Jim Rohn As a CEO, whenever I saw a hard worker I instantly noticed them. They always stood out from the rest. And knowing they were a hard worker made me comfortable to assign them […]

The Toughest CEO Position in The World

I was a CEO of a high-growth technology company for many years and so believe me when I say that I don’t make this next statement lightly: There is no tougher CEO position in the world than that of the CEO of a home. As CEO of a home you are not just the Chief […]

It May Not Be Your Fault, But It Is Your Responsibility

You may not have caused this problem yourself, but it is your job to do something about it, especially when you hold any kind of a leadership or management position. Management means that you are responsible for everything – whether you personally made the mistake or not – you still have to own the responsibility […]

Accomplish More Than Ever Before

This weekend my husband and I have had the privilege of coming together with our friends, Charles and Liz Koch, along with many other absolutely incredible philanthropic leaders as part of The Seminar Network, a group of individuals who have chosen to work together to accomplish some truly amazing things in philanthropy. What makes this […]

Even Successful People Are Just People

Before everything in my life went haywire and I ended up at Primary Children’s hospital last Saturday through Monday with my grandbaby (who btw seems to be getting a little better each day thank heavens!), I had the awesome experience of speaking last Friday at Utah State University’s Huntsman School of Business Forum on the […]

WHAT AWESOME LOOKS LIKE: How To Excel In Business & Life

I have to say that starting the year off with a great big completed check on one of my big goals from my goal poster feels pretty fantastic! I finished writing my very first book ever and I’m going to be receiving my advanced copy of the book fresh off the presses from the publisher […]

How To Excel In Business And In Life

This morning I was interviewed for by Mary Crafts-Homer for her podcast, Crafting A Meaningful Life. Mary was the founder and CEO of Culinary Crafts, an incredibly successful catering business (she’s done events for many of the rich and famous like Oprah Winfrey, George W. Bush, Sir Elton John, etc), that she grew and recently […]

How Not To Feel Lonely As A CEO

Today I spoke at an executive luncheon for CEOs and executives from different companies. It was a Q&A format so there was a lot of questions asked about the different things that CEOs deal with. Talking with them I was reminded of the stresses they were carrying on their shoulders and I could remember feeling […]

Don’t Just Have A Brand Identity, Create A Total Brand Experience

Successful companies don’t just have a brand identity, they create a total brand experience. A total brand experience causes people to FEEL their brand, and I can’t think of a finer example of a Company who has mastered creating a total brand experience then Disney. Years ago I was asked to come out to Disney […]

There Is No Such Thing As Just A Mom

Whenever someone asks a woman what she does and she replies, “I’m just a Mom” I want to yell out – “There is no such thing as JUST a Mom!” When I look back at my life there is nothing I have experienced that is more challenging nor rewarding than that of being a Mother. […]

How A Great Leader Melts The Iceberg Of Ignorance

“Only 4% of an organization’s front-line problems are known by top management, 9% are known by middle management, 74% by supervisors and 100% by employees…” Sidney Yoshida calls this “The Iceberg of Ignorance” in his study that was presented at the International Quality Symposium. Front-line employees that are working in the trenches are always going […]

We All Have A Talent We Bring To The Table

I can still remember walking into a Deseret Industries thrift store as a newly married girl of 20 years old and spotting an old broken down piece of furniture. As I looked at it, in my mind I could literally picture the gorgeous rocking chair that it could be if I were to put a […]

Woman Sick Versus Man Sick

In yesterday’s blog I shared how sick I was feeling, and today, unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling any better.  But as much as I would have LOVED to stay in bed sleeping all day that just wasn’t an option as there were things I had no choice but to get done, sick or not. So as […]

Don’t miss the Forbes Under 30 Summit and a chance to change the world!

As those who follow my blog know I am a contributor to Forbes and have written many articles on entrepreneurship and business topics for them. You can view those articles by visiting www.forbes.com/sites/amyanderson/   Forbes has been doing some really exciting things in the world of entrepreneurship, including hosting the Forbes Under 30 Summit. This […]

The Executive Team is the single greatest factor that determines Success or Failure for any Company

Earlier today I was looking through some documents and I found an outline I had written for a talk I was asked to give clear back in 2005 on How To Build And Operate A Successful Executive Team. As I sat reading it, some eleven years later, I can tell you that if I were asked to talk on that same subject today I […]

How Delta CEO Ed Bastian Just Proved That Delta Airlines Is Awesome (Forbes Article)

Tuesday morning October 18, 2016 at around 2am I posted a blog titled “Companies don’t have to be perfect but they do need to fix it when they screw up!” In that blog I shared the story of a harrowing customer service nightmare I was going through with Delta Airlines. Toward the end of that […]

Companies don’t have to be perfect but they do need to fix it when they screw up!

It’s late and I’m tired, but even worse I am frustrated beyond belief because I have just gone through one incredibly bad customer service experience and I am still going through it as I write tonight’s blog. I spent several hours tonight online booking airline tickets with Delta. I have been a faithful Delta Airlines customer […]

Get Ready For Father’s Day – a public service reminder

Sunday it will be Father’s Day and so as a public service I thought it would be good for me to remind everyone who has a Father themselves, as well as any Wives who have a Husband of children to GET ON TOP OF IT PEOPLE!! Don’t forget to prepare something to honor those Fathers!!! […]