More Work Ahead for Women
For those of you who are regular readers, you will know that I am a strong proponent of women in leadership roles. I was lucky to be born into a time where it is acceptable for women to take on and excel in leadership positions -- women like Indra Nooyi, Lynn...
Five Tips for When the Going Gets Tough
Tackling issues requires different -- and often multiple -- leadership approaches. The complexity of the situation will dictate the response. While routine problems are generally solved through experience and expertise, complex issues tend to be tackled more...
A Different Kind of Mirror
When you take a look in the mirror, what do you see? Is it the confident, articulate leader that others see? Is it the approachable, open, yet decisive leader that you believe yourself to be? Or could there be another kind of leader lurking in the shadows? Marshall...
Tell it Like it Is
One of the critical things that a leader must possess is honesty. Not only in the sense that they ought to be honest in their behavior, but also in that they must call things as they see them [see If You Can Only Focus on One Thing...]. Without doubt, leaders will...
Celebrate Leadership
The first Monday of September is Labor Day in the United States, a day recognized around the world -- albeit on different days and terms (International Workers’ Day or May Day in other countries) -– to celebrate social and economic achievement. It is a time to...
What Would You Do?
Leaders can be found at all levels of an organization. For sure, you will see them sitting at the boardroom table, but you will also see leaders in the mailroom, on the factory floor and in the cafeteria. In fact, wherever you look -- if you look closely enough -- you...
Org Charts as a Tool
How often do you look through your organization chart? How closely do you look? What do you look for? Some executives survey their org charts with a sense of achievement, while others look for ways to cut costs; but often a more productive path is to identify new...
Learning to Lead
The path to becoming a leader is never clear. You may arrive at a leadership position by luck, opportunity, hard work or even because of a disaster. It is precisely because of this that many people, as they begin to transition into leadership roles, begin to search...
Bad Leadership
There are plenty of books and quite a few blogs that focus on good leadership. They talk about what needs to be done and when, they discuss decision making, strategy, team building and collaboration. But what about bad leadership? It seems that when it comes to bad...
Leadership and Childhood Dreams
Brick walls are not there to keep us out. They let us show our dedication. -- Randy Pausch Randy Pausch was an extraordinary leader. This is his "last lecture" on achieving childhood dreams. The idea for this lecture is based on a series of lectures by recognized...
I’m Sorry, Did You Say Something?
Recently, I posted a piece on the tremendously important pursuit of consistent, effective communication. To take my point a step further, I subsequently added a piece regarding a concept called background-foreground communication, wherein I described a method that I...
Featured on the Internet
If you are wanting to find information on "leadership", there are plenty of sites you can visit. Take a look at my Links and you will see the websites that I read regularly -- Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership, Anna Farmery's The Engaging Brand, Dan McCarthy's Great...
Revisiting Michael Porter’s Five Competitive Forces
Almost 30 years ago, Michael Porter identified the five competitive forces that shape business strategy. This ground-breaking work was a holistic way of looking at industry/business. Porter focuses on the need to step back from the details of running your business so...
Epic Living Hour Podcast Live
Earlier today I was interviewed by Eric Pennington on his Epic Living Podcast. You can listen to the recorded podcast directly by clicking on the play button here on the left. My interview commences at 11 minutes into the podcast. In the podcast I discuss my current...
Nelson Mandela’s 8 Lessons in Leadership
This recent Time interview with Nelson Mandela provides a great, open and insightful view of leadership from someone who has known great power and also been bereft of its influence in his 90 years. His advice for leaders is practical, outcome-oriented and courageous....
Join Me on the Epic Living Podcast
Eric Pennington, author of Waking Up in Corporate America, has a popular show, Epic Living Hour, on BlogTalkRadio each Friday. BlogTalkRadio takes the radio show format and brings it online -- so you can listen live or download the show to play back on your computer...
Background – Foreground Communication
Recently, I wrote a piece on the critical importance of communication. In my opinion, the one core skill that any person needs, be it in business or life in general, is the ability to clearly communicate their thoughts and views. After all, without clear...
What Have You Got to Complain About?
Late last year, Marshall Goldsmith reported on a study that found a majority of employees spend 10 or more hours each month complaining -- or listening to others complain. Furthermore, the study finds that almost 30% of your employees will engage in the practice of...
Add More Women to the Top 50 List
After reading the Wall Street Journal's Top 50 Business Gurus some time ago, I asked the question Where Are the Women Gurus? The insightful Wally Bock provided a very interesting, two part answer. Firstly, he checked his personal bookcase and noted that of the 50 or...
If You Can Only Focus on One Thing …
Ok, so it is probably not realistic to only focus on one thing ... be it as an employee, aspiring leader, or existing leader ... given the breadth of responsibilities we all have. However, there is one thing that I have found that consistently has dramatic impacts on...