I’m waiting for an appointment and watching a group of children learning to play American football. The coaches are good and constantly talking. The kids look to be around 5th grade and don’t know the rules well. There’s a lot of chaos; both skill and structure (rules) are lacking at this young age. It takes […]
I’m usually not interested in preseason football. It’s like watching all-star wresting — lots of meaningless activity. However, I viewed the first quarter of a few games to prime the pump for the coming season. One disheartening thing I saw was a talented rookie wide receiver blow his knee out, most likely ending his season […]
A recent column in The Wall Street Journal points out that most colleges fail to improve critical-thinking skills. That’s unfortunate. Being able to recite information isn’t really valuable — especially since we can ask Alexa or Siri anything at any time. It’s more than just being informed and caring. Connecting dots, making assumptions, analyzing data […]
Runoff season is about over in the Front Range of Colorado as I write this, so fly-fishing season is ramping up. My recent feeble attempts at fishing the big water (when the snowmelt comes screaming down the canyons) were mostly frustrating. Trying to maintain my balance in the raging water when casting to a relatively […]
If you’re an executive and aren’t a bit anxious (or excited, if you’re an optimist!) about the rate of change in the business world, my guess is you’re just not paying attention. Either that or you sell toilet paper and aren’t worried about a new disruptive technology. Even a toilet paper company, however, could find […]
“In all the time I spent with him, I never once heard him refer to his ability to see the future. He couldn’t see it — that’s why he had to grope for it.” —Michael Lewis, “The New New Thing” (talking about entrepreneur Jim Clark) Jim Clark famously founded Netscape, Silicon Graphics, myCFO and Healtheon […]
Leaders with people in their business who are looking to increase their bottom line have a choice regarding how to do it. Let’s assume you produce $100 worth of goods or services with $20 of labor input yielding $80 of profit. You can try to cut 25 percent of your labor cost to produce that […]
Some leadership books are timeless My sous chef Alexa and I were cooking dinner the other night, and I asked her, “Alexa, play top songs from 1981.” (I didn’t say please. I know she’s artificial intelligence, but I still feel guilty.) 1981 is the year our first child was born. After listening to about 10 […]
“Every CEO has an open flank.” —Ram Charan No one is great at everything. CEOs who think they must know everything (or think they do know everything!) are on a fast track to disappointment and failure. Most CEOs know this and plug the hole by gaining knowledge or hiring to fill in for their weakness—if […]
Have you read “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield? If you’ve ever struggled to maintain motivation or conquer internal demons, you should pick it up. It’s a bit off the wall, but great. In the book, Pressfield talks a lot about muses. If you’ve forgotten your Greek mythology (I had!), the Muses are the […]