Rethinking Leadership: Article and Podcast at Pragmatic Marketing
My recent article, Rethinking Leadership in an Era of Change, and the supporting podcast can be found at Pragmatic Marketing.
Leadership Caffeine™—9 Lessons from the North Woods
There's no shortage of leadership and management lessons to be found in the hard, manual labor found at a north woods property. While to many, the work might seem overwhelming, for those secure in the knowledge that they are creating something remarkable for those around them, the work is just part of the price of admission to success.
How to Set the Stage for a Great Day at Work (video)
A few years ago, I learned an invaluable lesson from a workshop group on how to set the stage for a great day at work. Enjoy and use it in great health!
Travis Kalanick’s Growing Up To-Do List as a Leader
Travis Kalanick, the CEO and founder of Uber, has had a tough few weeks. With a major sexual harassment investigation and a lawsuit by Alphabet (Google) for patent infringement, the last thing he needed was another viral bad moment. Unfortunately, that's what he got when he berated an Uber driver and was captured on camera. Mr. Kalanick indicated that, "It's time to grow up," and he "wants leadership help." Here's a "Leadership To Do" list to help him get started...
Leadership Caffeine™—Sweeping Incrementalism for Big Results
The big fixes complete with broad frameworks and their own vocabularies are alluring. They also are sinkholes of despair and frustration for groups unable to translate the ideas into coherent actions. Instead, focus on the small, subtle changes in behaviors that offer the potential for big results. I call this: sweeping incrementalism.
Leadership Mistakes are the Foundation of Our Success
No one serves in a leadership role without making mistakes. If you screw up, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep marching—a bit wiser and a lot better prepared for the next challenge. You too will build success upon a foundation of lessons learned the hard way.
Don’t Let Lazy Brain Syndrome Stifle Creativity
Humans are creatures of habit, and our approach to solving problems is no different. We tend to attack every problem in familiar ways, without taking the time or making the effort to consider creative options. The tracks of our minds are well grooved. Effective leaders recognize the hard work and heavy lifting involved with finding creative solutions and strive to push their teams out of those grooves.
A to Z on Why Your Strategy or Change Initiative Will Fail
I've always enjoyed time-travel stories. What if in business, we could travel ahead in time to see our mistakes and then go back and correct them and change the future for the better? While Einstein and others suggest it is impossible, I beg to differ. In the case of leading change, we can travel through [...]
Leadership Caffeine™—Awkward Moments
Our work lives are punctuated by awkward moments thrust upon us at various points in time. Any first day at a new job. Every last day at an old job. The day you learn your boss was fired. You liked this boss. Meeting your new boss at the firm buying your company. The point in [...]
Our Real World Leadership Laboratory
It’s a fascinating time to study leaders. Remember, you can learn from poor examples as well as great ones. I keep a dedicated file in my memory bank labeled, “Don’t Do That—Do This.” Recently, I’m running short on memory for storage. For me, the counter-balance to the overload of news from and about bloviating, gesticulating [...]
