When Amy, my business partner at Braithwaite, and I decided to add elearning to our services two years ago, we had a business plan full of charts and projections. We’d both worked at Fortune 500 companies so we knew the drill. Former bosses would have been proud. While we were planning rich, the elearning business » Read More
I find Nike’s decision to use an uber dose of swagger and to fuel controversy with its winning takes care of everything ad campaign a mesmerizing exercise in social culture. So are responses from some sportswriters: Jay Busbee sharing the truth he believes many of us are missing, “Nike is doing this to get under your » Read More
CCL’s Nick Petrie writes, “Hindsight does not lead to foresight since the elements and conditions of the system can be in continual flux”? If so, it’s time to hang up on heroic leadership — the notion that a single person has all the answers — and embrace a new orientation to leading yourself and others: » Read More
Many leaders fall into the quicksand of believing they can fix what’s wrong with other people. Some are motivated by a sincere desire to help people be their best. Other leaders have an ego-driven I can fix’em mentality. They’re motivated by an internal desire to be known as the hero who saves the day. The » Read More
The delta between their approaches was vast: one devoid of generosity, the other overflowing with it. I’d been troubled by an exchange I had witnessed at a small conference a few months ago. The conference leader was from an organization dedicated to transformation. During a break, a gentleman from another state approached the leader and » Read More
Listening to the CEO of the $500m manufacturing firm describe the exploits of his operations vice president was fascinating: “Louis was incredible … again. When the product defect was discovered, he told his team to do whatever was needed to fix it. After two weeks of all-hands-on-deck work, Louis got the glitch fixed and we » Read More
She’d been impossible to miss – tall, impeccably groomed and stylishly dressed – flitting from table to table, rarely spending more than a minute or two before moving on. Movement out of sync with the 20-minute table rotations at the women’s networking event. Her final perch was our table, joining us in the last few » Read More
Challenge my mind. Intrigue me. Pique my curiosity. Move me. Make me laugh. Just don’t try to sell or subscribe or impress me before you’ve done any of those things! I’ve been doing lots of research as I write my next book, which includes visiting new web sites and blogs. On some (too many!) I was bombarded with » Read More
Three nearly identical stories shared with me in just two days. Three stories of individual and/or group anguish, trauma, frustration, annoyance, confusion and heartbreak caused by narcissistic control-freak bosses. Bosses of this self-absorbed ilk aren’t self-aware or open to feedback, so no amount of pixie dust will help them listen despite how much we have » Read More
I’ve long believed life isn’t an either/or choice but rather an array of both/and opportunities. One place where the either/or versus both/and orientation shows up in stark contrast is in working with people to produce outcomes, whether it’s at work, at home, in the community, etc. Some individuals have an intense heads-down focus on delivering » Read More
