Dad | The Prizefighter & The Preacher
I've written several columns about Mom, but what about Dad? Dads never get any credit, yet they offer unique insights into the world and how we should live.
Leadership Insights | The Prizefighter & The Preacher
I've written several columns about Mom, but what about Dad? Dads never get any credit, yet they offer unique insights into the world and how we should live.
Leadership Insight | What are we doing to help you?
“There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.”
~ Winston Churchill
Why do you have your own business?
Winston Churchill could have been an entrepreneur to have so eloquently dramatized the thrill associated with building a business.
Whether you own it yourself or share it with partners, it’s yours to build, to mold according to your dreams and values.
You may be building it from scratch or seeking new opportunities to jumpstart a mature company. In either case, I hope this will help you on your journey.
Want to build your own boat?
Why do you have your own business?
Independence, many will say, the chance to run my own show?
Be my own boss?
Do things my way – maybe because you’ve seen them done the wrong way and you can do better? (more…)
Leadership Insight | Building Consensus does not Build Success
Building Consensus ≠ Building Success
I have been working with a young CEO who recently acceded to her company’s leadership.
She was the successor to a more authoritarian regime and found herself working overtime to establish a more collaborative and less hierarchical environment.
She wanted to bring people to the table, encourage a stronger cultural bond among her employees and build a more inclusive culture that valued the contribution of each individual.
People welcomed those changes with open arms, eager to embrace a culture they much preferred.
Is it healthy if your leadership team agrees with everything you want?
What emerged along with a more engaging and transparent culture, however, was a cadre of executives so eager to please their new leader, and to be a part of her leadership team, that they acquiesced to every idea and plan. (more…)
Leadership Insight | First rule of a mistake: Admit it
“A lie will easily get you out of a scrape, and yet,
strangely and beautifully, rapture possesses you
when you have taken the scrape and left out the lie.”
~ Charles Edward Montague
Everyone makes mistakes.
We know this for a fact, don’t we? It’s pretty clear —like crystal.
Why are we are so unwilling to admit our mistakes?
So, why do so many persist in their insistence that they did no wrong?
Despite the lessons that cover the waterfront — from Watergate to the Catholic Church — the cover-up is always worse than the crime.
What appeared to be minor tributaries turned into a rushing river of a failed presidency and international scandal, yet the stream of lies and denial from those who fail to heed these lessons continues unabated in both our public and private lives.
The truth will never come out … will it?
For some reason, we persist in believing that the truth will never come out. (more…)
Leadership Lessons | Does Mom think you should be a snitch?
“God grant that men of principle shall be our principal men.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Does Mom think you should be a snitch?
Some of you may be familiar with the famed but controversial West Point Cadet Honor Code: “A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do.”
But didn’t somebody say: “Don’t be a tattletale?”
Few of us would doubt the wisdom of “will not lie, cheat or steal”, the core of many of the values we learned as children.
One of the other things we learned as children, though, was, “don’t be a tattletale.”
Be loyal to your friends, don’t snitch on them, and don’t go running to mommy when you observe a small infraction of the rules. It doesn’t help that we’ve seen countless movies since then where a snitch ends up on the wrong side of the grass.
What about the part, “or tolerate those who do”?
Thus, the controversial phrase, “or tolerate those who do.” (more…)