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 subscribe to this leadership theory, but there was still a culture in the larger organization that made this statement at…
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 to get his managers to be more innovative. I absolutely believe that in today’s business climate a company is either…
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 school awards banquet the next week. Jack’s son would be graduating that year and really wanted his father to attend.…
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 Pareto Principle has nothing to do with leadership or management? So how has it become part of the leadership and…
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 good retirement/exit program. Unfortunately, there were no Boomers on the task force so the woman volunteered to help. She was…
