If anything teaches us about how to handle ourselves in public, er, how NOT to do it, the incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock at last week’s Oscar’s event, and its aftermath, is a textbook example of exactly how NOT to do it. It provides an instructive roadmap about…
One of the most popular words in the business lexicon these days is collaboration. Everyone’s eager to flatten the organization, get rid of hierarchy, eliminate command-and-control structures and collaborate across broad multifunctional teams. Do we really understand collaboration and why it’s become such a ubiquitous battle cry? On most days,…
There’s an apocryphal story that you may have heard from your Dad growing up: Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? The first time I answered, “One.” “Nope,” he responded. “Five.” ”Why is there Five?” I asked. ”Because there’s a difference…
There's no doubt that the lack of Accountability is the issue that rises to the top of the list in every conversation I've had with CEOs. "TWENTY TIRED EXCUSES" One of the first clues that your team or organization is struggling with Accountability is how many of the "TWENTY TIRED EXCUSES"…
I heard from a CEO recently, with whom I've met and had dinner, but have not worked. He included this sentence in an email after a brief introduction : “So much is up in the air at the moment. Ugh. Whoever thought being in leadership was something to aspire to?”…
This quote, among the many in best-selling The Oz Principle by Craig Hickman, Tom Smith, and Roger Connors, hits the nail on the head: “The majority of people in organizations today, when confronted with poor performance or unsatisfactory results, immediately begin to formulate excuses, rationalizations, and arguments for why they cannot be…
Few executives will admit it’s too much trouble to Set Clear Expectations, even for their direct reports If it’s true for you, make sure you’re prepared for plenty of confusion and mediocre results. When I talk to executives every day, there’s hardly a conversation that doesn’t include the same 2…
Are New Year's Resolutions Dead? Maybe they should be because the statistics aren't very encouraging about the success of those resolutions. There are a lot of reasons for that. Change isn't easy in any case, so unless you're prepared to invest in changing your behavior, your resolutions are likely to…
All of us have felt this way at one time or another. Nothing is going our way and it's just too hard to slog through the quicksand to get anything done. So, what do we do to pull ourselves out of that funk? How do we fire up the engine…