In a recent leadership workshop, we had deep discussion about diversity. Participants were looking for answers to an issue leaders face that seems to have no good answer. The conversation centered on two questions: how should a leader view diversity and why does this seem to be such an explosive… Read More »A Difficult Subject
That’s a saying I learned back in my days in the old Strategic Air Command (SAC). It reflected a culture that existed at one time in the military: the no news is good news style of leadership. In reality, most of the leaders I worked for back then didn’t really… Read More »Absence of Punishment is a Reward in Itself
I was speaking to a friend recently and the subject turned to innovation. He was working with a client who was concerned that there was no longer an innovative spirit in his company. It reminded me of a conversation I had recently had with a client who wasn’t sure how… Read More »Innovate or Die
After many years of hard work Jack was offered a very coveted position, one for which few were considered, and he could barely contain his excitement. He went home to tell his family, but his teenage son had news of his own and ignored Jack’s enthusiasm. There was a high… Read More »Take Time to Smell the Roses
You’ve probably heard that 20% of what you do is producing 80% of the results. Or maybe someone told you that 80% of the issues you deal with come from only 20% of your people. They most likely called this the Pareto Principle. But did you know that the real… Read More »The Real Pareto
When I was researching Balancing the Generations I interviewed a woman who had worked for a long time for a company in the Northwest. Her company, recognizing that many of their employees were of the Baby Boom Generation and would be retiring, set up a task force to develop a… Read More »The Challenge of Age and Team Conflict – A Leader’s Opportunity
Something disturbing is happening lately. An apparently harmless attempt to define the future. Except it isn’t harmless and will have a negative effect on the future. It’s Generation Z. No, not the people themselves but the concept. Speakers and authors are already telling us what Generation Z is like and… Read More »There is No Generation Z
I am often asked for secrets to successful leadership. There really aren’t any secrets, but saying that makes me seem less of an expert so I just put on my best wise looking smile and provide a short list of key leadership principles. While it’s tough to pick out just… Read More »It’s Not Really a Secret
Business owners often complain that they don’t know about everything happening in the business. It’s s a truth many leaders don’t realize: the higher you go, the less you know! For various reasons, the more senior a leader is, the less he or she knows about what is going on… Read More »What You Don’t Know Is More Than You Realize
Among the many sculptures and works of art in Washington D.C. is a piece titled “The Awakening,” a large aluminum sculpture of a man either struggling to rise from, or being consumed by the Earth. Created by J. Seward Johnson Jr., the sculpture was first installed at Haines Point in… Read More »The Awakening