Benjamin Franklin is generally the cited source of the quote, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” We can be certain, however, that Franklin was not the progenitor of the famous quote, further lending truth to it. But, as we know, people have devised ways to cheat taxes [...]
I was recently invited to give some brief remarks at a local, regional economic development meeting. My client, the CEO of the organization that organized the event, exemplifies competent leadership on many levels. It was obvious to me that I could draw a distinct parallel between her performance and another of my heroes, Grace Hopper. [...]
My first experience with the concept of leadership was playing “follow the leader” in kindergarten. Already well-acquainted with authority, I understood the requirement to obey my parents, other adult relatives, neighbors, teachers, and babysitters. I knew about authority figures like the police with their uniforms, badges, and guns, and I had some notion of the [...]
Peter F. Drucker wryly noted that the only requirement for being a leader is to have at least one follower. Drucker, whose observations, insights, and perspective on management theory have shaped the modern business landscape, clearly knew something about leadership. However, rather than focus on the leader's or persons' qualities, his guidance was aimed at [...]
For almost twenty years, I have helped executives develop the leadership skills they and their organizations need. I have learned that leadership is hard: It's challenging to learn, difficult to implement effectively, and impossible to teach. Through years of observing how people approach leadership, studying why some people are successful, and make it look [...]
Organizational decision-making is the necessary and complex balancing of alignment and disagreement. That is particularly true for critical issues that business leaders routinely face. You need people aligned around an organization's core purpose so they will act to its benefit. And you need a rigorous assessment of different and even opposing ideas to draw out [...]
Do you spend more of your time on problems or opportunities? How you think about the challenges you face informs how you behave and your performance. Most of my clients, and people in general, struggle with apprehension, procrastination, and some level of anxiety over what they perceive as problems and welcome the challenges that [...]
Early in my coaching career with CEOs, I learned that most problems are subjective. People view problems differently, sometimes very differently. Problem-solving skills rank high among the things that determine a business leader's competence and success. Much of my work focuses on helping clients change how they look at problems and helping them identify ways [...]
Reading about Knight’s passing, I recalled a pivotal encounter I had with Dr. Lee Thayer. In my early days as a Fellow at the Thayer Institute, a debate I soundly lost left a lasting impression that I greatly underestimated the importance of until some years later. Our debate was over what it takes to be [...]
I was young and an inexperienced CEO when an ugly incident upended my beliefs about leadership. It made me realize that what I thought I understood about leadership was entirely insufficient – and wrong. My father led the company for many years before me. He felt responsible for putting food on the tables for the [...]
