I’m not Catholic, but my wife is. So I’ve been an “observer” of the religion and leadership in the church for decades. In fact, my wife was in St. Peter’s Square and saw the white smoke go up when John Paul II was selected. Pretty cool experience for her! I work with CEOs and marvel […]
Donald Trump’s recent debacle* — lauding Putin, ignoring his own intelligence agencies and blaming America for the poor United States/Russian relationship, and then reversing course after a tsunami of outrage — is instructive for leaders. Here’s the directive: Leadership is not polling! Leadership has obligations, and making tough decisions and sticking with them is one […]
“Having determined your destination, you set sails, motivate rowers, adjust for winds and currents, avoid shoals and rocks, allow for surprises, and expend finite energy efficiently. You control some things, but align yourself with others. You balance, while never forgetting that the reason you’re balancing is to get from where you are to where you […]
Leadership requires you to see things in different ways At lunch the other day, my very well-read friend described why he still buys leadership books in bookstores. This was on the heels of a conversation about web privacy and how Amazon and many other web sellers zero in on what you buy and peruse to […]
One of the greatest issues in self-improvement is (here comes a blinding flash of the obvious!) that people want to be different but don’t want to change. It’s one of the biggest barriers in my coaching work. Let me rephrase that: It’s one of the biggest issues for those people I won’t coach. I’m sure […]
This might be one of the most soul-crushing questions for capitalists and business leaders to answer! I don’t mean this as a trick question (e.g., Which came first, the chicken or the egg?). Obviously, if you don’t have customers, you can’t have profits. However, you can have many customers and no profits, and that doesn’t […]
High-margin businesses naturally attract competition If your strategy doesn’t identify what specific markets you compete in and why people will buy from you versus your competition, then your strategy is bad. You’re going to need to rely on luck. In fact, if you’re in a high-margin business, you may not know it but you’re being […]
Determined to shrink the book pile on my credenza, I grabbed “The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today.” Someone recommended it to me several years ago, and I’ve moved it around my office several times since then (always in good company of other “must read” books). I no longer read entire […]
Several times in my coaching sessions, I’ve asked CEOs and other senior business leaders to rate themselves on a 10-point scale on numerous factors, including fun, and they froze. “OK, call it happiness if you’d like,” I prompted. Still no response. That ain’t right! Executives should be many things: competent, strategic, kind, decisive, communicative… and […]
It Takes an Army OK, maybe a platoon. If you really want to change your behavior, don’t do it solo. I’ve coached executives for a long time and was one myself. The number of talented, disciplined people who can significantly improve their behavior by themselves is extremely small. If you were alone on a desert […]