Time after time, you learn that the characteristics women hold and cherish are becoming more the norm for business today. Attributes such as collaboration diversity, judgment, intuition, partnership, listening, inclusiveness, flexibility, selflessness and loyalty mean a lot.

As we hopefully continue our recovery in 2013, where will leadership focus? Will we rebuild the trust we lost with employees when the recession started and jobs were eliminated at a record pace?

Every element of the country's past success is coming under scrutiny -- the patent process, the higher education system, and the condition of the physical and digital infrastructures, among many others. One perennial target is the bottleneck in U.S. access to the world's technical workforce.

How many unrecognized geniuses must be out there? All those people with potential still in villages in India, China and others. The world is certainly full of rough diamonds -- people with immense potential but never receive the polishing from which their potential can be realized.

Strong "A" players are quietly confident but deep down are humble. They are good listeners. They don't need to win every argument so they can have their idea probed and questioned. But at the end of the day, healthy ego is at the root of all great candidates.

What we all need to recognize is that capital is not based on meritocracy. It's based on relationships. Yes, the business has to be disruptive or at least scalable to attract venture capital. VC's invest in PEOPLE first, and businesses second.

When we launched Springboard Enterprises in January 2000 in Silicon Valley, there were more than a few skeptics as to whether we would find enough wom...

It is time to start demanding that organizations systematically report on their non-financial performance. A great place to start is with information about the state of their employees.