Official website of Dave Berkus
- Ever Receive Worthless Advice? 03/03/2026I recently watched a young CEO assemble an advisory board. Six people. All smart. All experienced. All were willing to help. Several months later, he was more confused than when he started. One advisor told him to raise money immediately. Another said to stay lean and bootstrap. One pushed for enterprise customers who would pay […]
- Is it lonely at the top? 02/26/2026Leadership is often described as visionary, rewarding, and inspiring. But there’s a side we don’t talk about enough: it can be profoundly lonely at the top. When you’re the one making the hard calls, carrying the weight of the business, and shielding your team from the turbulence behind the scenes, it’s easy to feel isolated. […]
- Have You Trained Your Successor Yet? 02/19/2026A fellow board member asked me a question recently that I couldn’t answer: “If our CEO got hit by a bus tomorrow, who runs this company?” My silence said everything. Because, as a board member or advisor of numerous companies over the last decades, I have experienced this terrible occurrence four times. So, I know […]
- Dealing with employee conflict! 02/12/2026The conference room door seemed to slam shut. Two voices escalated. Everyone within thirty feet froze at their desks. This is the moment that defines your leadership more than any strategic memo you’ll ever write. I’ve seen managers pretend they didn’t hear it. I’ve watched executives literally walk the other direction. And I’ve witnessed the […]
- Are strategic partnerships worth it? 02/05/2026I’ve watched CEOs sign strategic partnership agreements many times that looked perfect on paper. And it is a recurring rule: six months later, neither company could point to a single dollar of incremental revenue. Strategic partnerships fail more often than they succeed. Not because the strategy was wrong, but because the execution assumptions were fantasy. […]
- Integrity compounds faster than revenue. 01/29/2026I’ve watched more than a few CEOs face the same choice. Hit the quarterly number by cutting corners, or miss it by doing things right. Most choose the number. And most regret it. I sat on a board where the CEO recognized revenue early to make his projections. Technically defensible. Practically sketchy. He made his […]
- Is “humble” the same as weak? 01/22/2026Not even close. The strongest leaders I’ve worked with in 50+ years share something: they ask more questions than they answer. They admit what they don’t know. They listen to people three levels below them without defensiveness. Weakness is pretending. Weakness is the executive who nods along in meetings then second-guesses decisions in private. Weakness […]
- The smartest thing to do as a CEO? 01/15/2026Stop pretending to understand AI and start listening to the 25-year-olds. Recently, I sat in on a presentation where several junior developers explained how AI could automate our customer support workflow. The room was full of VPs nodding politely, clearly lost. Then something clicked. These weren’t just “tech-savvy kids.” They were the canaries in the […]
- The most dangerous phrase in any boardroom: “Well, what does everyone think?” 01/08/2026I’ve watched management teams “pool their ignorance” for decades. Eight smart people sitting around a table, each hoping someone else knows the answer they don’t have. The result? Decisions based on collective assumptions rather than actual data. Here’s what I learned after sitting through hundreds of board meetings: The person who speaks with the most […]
- I once watched a CEO struggle with fourteen direct reports. Fourteen. 01/02/2026His calendar was a nightmare of one-on-ones, status updates, and decision bottlenecks. Every manager in the company had to wait for him to weigh in. Progress moved at the speed of his availability. The problem wasn’t his work ethic. It was his span of control. Here’s what most leaders miss: your job isn’t to make […]
