A boy asked an older rich man how he made his money. The old guy fingered his sweater and said, “Well, son, it was 1934 and in the depth of the Great Depression. I was down to my last dime. “I invested that dime in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple […]
Boulder, Colo., is a great place to ride a bike. It has an extremely active cycling community, from world-class on down. We’re blessed with country roads, creeks and hills. When I say hills, I mean everything from gentle 2 percent grades up to lung-busting, lunch-losing 15 percent grades that would make a blood-doping cheater with […]
In an article from “Knowledge@ Wharton” a piece of research is cited from Daniel Kahneman—noted behavioral economist and author of “Thinking Slow and Thinking Fast”— where he articulates the challenge of “intuition” with a number of examples of how it fails us, from medical diagnosis, to ratings of performance in work settings. He points out […]
We have a demon cat by the name of Ike who has some bad habits. The other day I walked past the bathroom and saw is orange butt in the air with his face and paws in the toilet taking a drink. This, by the way, while he was within 20 feet of two bowls […]
I’m reading “The Vitality Imperative: How connected leaders and their teams achieve more with less time, money, and stress” by Mickey Connolly, Jim Motroni and Richard McDonald. I love an analogy they put forth. “Eons ago, humans valued fire and yet could not create it. When lightning struck (literally), people captured the fire and tended […]
I’m a fan of looking for examples of great strategy and leadership in unusual places. Although I focus on for-profit business leaders, I’ve seen some great examples from other venues such as the Girl Scouts and the United States Marine Corps. A recent story on NPR caught my attention. Ogden, Utah, has the highest percentage […]
“Fair” is an innocuous sounding four-letter word, but it can cause severe problems in an organization if it means that everyone is treated the same. Imagine that you’re the king or queen of a small island nation, The United Kingdom of [Your Name Here]. You’re a benevolent leader and want the best for your people. […]
My last two columns have addressed what CEOs and other senior leaders need to know and what they need to do. But who do you need to be? What are CEO leadership characteristics? Here is a excerpted section from my book, “Never Kick A Cow Chip On A Hot Day: Real Lessons for Real CEOs […]
Maintain a plan In last week’s blog I postulated that there were three questions that drove my best CEO clients in their quest for excellence: What do I need to know, what do I need to do and who do I need to be? I addressed the first last week and will address the second […]
The questions I asked myself years ago as a CEO and the questions I see my CEO clients ask themselves now about improving usually fall into three buckets: What do I need to know, what do I need to do and whom do I need to be? While I address these 3 critical questions in […]