Note from Art: While I’m remarkably sensitive to not creating an infomercial out of my blog, I am involved in a number of exciting activities that I’ve shared with some of you personally.  Here’s a bit broader update and a call for speakers and interview subjects.

-Coming Soon: The Management Excellence Interview Series

I truly enjoy some of the blogs that push the envelope on mixing media to provide audio and video posts, podcasts and events, and I’m moving in that direction as well. I experimented earlier this year with some podcasts and got tired of talking with myself and haven’t come back to that medium yet.

That’s changing over the next few weeks as I embark on what I hope will be a regular feature here at Management Excellence in the form of brief audio interviews with some fascinating professionals.

I’m on tap to record the first one on Monday (for posting later that week) with Mike Mulcahy, a scrappy, no-nonsense executive that has held the hot seat in large and small organizations, and has some great insights on “The CEO’s Perspective on Product Management.”

As an aside, I conducted yet another experiment on Twitter yesterday and asked the product management community #prodmgmt what they want to hear from Mike. Their list of great questions might just help define the outline for a book! If you’re not using Twitter to tap into the many great minds out there, you are missing a great opportunity.

I am interested in building on my list of interview subjects and would love to chat with executives and professionals that have something to say about leadership, strategy, sales and marketing and performance excellence and any of the other topics that I cover here at Management Excellence.  Drop me a note and I will get in touch with you.

-Where Distance Learning Meets Professional Mentoring to Support Professional Growth

During the past few years, I challenged myself to do something way out of my comfort zone and that is to learn to teach on-line. I’m a huge advocate of face to face learning, but the world is changing.  I now teach distance classes here in my community and actually managed to gain permission from DePaul to teach an elective MBA course (Project Management) in a hybrid fashion…one week face to face and the next on-line. The experience has been fascinating and enlightening for me and the students have voted with stellar reviews.

It’s time for the next step.

I am putting the finishing touches on my initial distance learning meets professional mentoring programs and will launch a new website for this in September.

The first program is focused on early career professionals, and is entitled: “Considering Leadership: What to Do and How to Prepare,” and will be quickly followed with, “Congratulations You’re a First-Time Leader, What Next?” (There are another 6 on tap for more experienced professionals and audiences in product and project management, marketing and on topics ranging from leadership to strategy and execution to developing executive presence.)

What I’m excited about is that the programs are designed to offer a blend of distance learning with personal mentoring time (telephone or skype) to deliver complete schedule flexibility while integrating person to person involvement. I’ve designed the lessons to communicate core concepts and tools in short audio and video segments, supported by synced slides, and then the pdf Action Guide documents for each lesson outline the very important developmental exercises.

I engage with the participants in up-front and back-end personal calls, as well as via live teleseminars during the program. Of course, they get unlimited e-mail access to me. Programs will run 45 to 60 days and will be priced extremely aggressively to allow individuals as well as corporations to get involved.

I’m working hard to help fill some gaps in the market with these programs. People need schedule flexibility and affordability, and they need tools and programs that don’t just talk but that challenge and guide them on taking action. After all, you can no longer count on your company to support your own development and there’s little else in the market that blends flexibility with affordability with pragmatism and quality.

Step one is a quality check and I’ll be putting several early career professionals through the “Considering Program” prior to launch. More soon.

-News Sound Bites:

Practical Lessons in Leadership will be used as a text at yet another school…this time for a program on Creative Leadership at McHenry Community College here in Illinois. I’ve been invited to guest speak and I can’t wait. Nothing beats walking into a classroom and seeing your book in front of everyone with post-its sticking out and pages bent. Prior talks and Q/A sessions in these settings have been great! That’s what it was meant for!

-Speaking of Guest Speakers: I am teaching Business Plan Development at DePaul University on Monday nights this fall and would love to hear from any Chicago-area professionals with experience in venture financing and business planning interested in a guest speaking opportunity. I can talk with you about specifics. Drop me an e-mail and I’ll get in touch with you.

-More Speaking:

Creating a High Performance Culture on a Foundation of Leadership Excellence is one of my keynote topics and I’m looking forward to delivering it at a CEO Conference at the Sawmill Cree Resort in Huron, OH on September 1.

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That’s it for now, although there is some “Marketing” news in the works, but more about that later. Back to more Management Excellence content with a new Leadership Caffeine post on Monday!

Enjoy your weekend!