When you were a kid, did you play tug of war? If so, you may remember having two equally strong teams matched up. There was lots of spent energy, sweating, perhaps swearing — and that damn rope just didn’t move! Does your company feel that way sometimes? Lots of people working hard and no movement?! […]
Most of my blog readers don’t wake up every day and think, “I want to be only as good as most other people.” I know that many of you want to leave your mark on the world and succeed versus just survive. (There are many ways to succeed, well beyond money and status.) Conformity and […]
If book smarts were enough to be a CEO, any intelligent person could pull it off. However, there’s a difference between information (which you can get from a book) and knowledge. Though you see it more in the younger ages, informative incompetence (II) isn’t the domain of just young leaders. One of the smartest guys […]
The strange dance between CEOs and their governing body (in my for-profit world, typically a board of directors) is interesting. Not quite swing, not quite polka — there’s often confusion about who’s leading, causing bruised toes. Over my many years of being on boards, working for boards as a CEO, coaching CEOs and working with […]
Executive coaching is about setting objectives, questioning, listening, prodding, a little bit of ass kicking, rewarding and supporting. Any other questions? OK, for those who want more detail, let’s explore this for a minute. You can’t throw a rock in a crowd without hitting a few executive coaches. Some are wise old business veterans, and […]
Judge a Man by His Questions “It is easier to judge the mind of a man by his questions rather than his answers.” —Pierre-Marc-Gaston de Lévis Think about your day yesterday. What questions did you face? If you’re like many busy executives, they were probably along the lines of: -Did the Western division get its […]
I loved Dr. Suess when I was a kid. (O.K. I still do!) While I don’t remember all of the red, blue and green characters from his books, I clearly remember The Grinch. In fact, I saw him a couple of weeks ago, trying to lead a company. Optimism is one quality of an emotionally […]
I “grew up” in a multiunit retail environment where benchmarking worked wonders as a tool to spread great ideas and fix broken stores, districts and areas. But whether you are focused internally or externally, benchmarking has a dark side. As a problem-solving tool, we examined stores that were below the mean for deficiencies (oftentimes management) […]
From the minute we engage with other humans (and even pets!) our parents tell us, “Be nice!” This is intended to be a catchall for don’t hit, scream, cry or make someone else feel bad. “Now look at what you did! Little Lisa is crying! Be nice!” As we get older, we’re rewarded for being […]
I get very excited each year at the beginning of July because it is the start of the Tour de France, a month long event. There are some great lessons we can pull from these wheeled warriors into the business world. Thanks to VCR, then DVD and now DVR and the web, I’ve hardly missed […]