Through the miracle of modern technology (and help from Cara and Aidan) you’re reading this as I am cruising with Heather in the warm and beautiful Caribbean Sea. It’s a great time for us to reflect on the past few months of preparing to welcome the newest member of our growing book family and prepare […]
Read post »One of the most agonizing parts of writing a new book is choosing a title. In some ways it’s like choosing a name for your new baby; he or she will carry all the associations with his or her name for a lifetime. I wrote the manuscript of this book with the working title of […]
Read post »Continuing the theme of meetings, here’s a great list of suggestions from Seth Godin’s March 27, 2009 blog post, “Getting serious about your meeting problem.” : • Understand that all problems are not the same. So why are your meetings? Does every issue deserve an hour? Why is there a default length? • Schedule meetings […]
Read post »Last week’s blog on Engage Younger Workers or Bore and Lose Them got me thinking further about how meetings most clearly showcase the organizational or even division/department’s mini-culture. I was running a two-day offsite planning retreat recently where the disconnect between the culture the leadership team wanted to build and their group behavior was huge. […]
Read post »Recently our son, Chris, sent me a link to an article pointing out what a major waste of time meetings are in many organizations. Chris is 26 years old and getting ready to go on someone else’s payroll. In a few months he finishes law school and starts his articling position with a law firm […]
Read post »Last week I introduced the April issue of The Leader Letter by pointing out the world is in the midst of major change. I also suggested that we’re seeing glimmers of hope and signs of renewed growth. Richard Kessener, Out-Patient Pharmacy Manager at Feather River Pharmacy in Paradise, California (I got a taste of paradise […]
Read post »Last week Don Semple from The Royal Bank left a comment at the bottom of my article “Leaders Take Responsibility for Their Choices.” I was intrigued and asked him what were the major changes he made that changed his life. His response below is a classic example of how moving from a below-the-line Victim to […]
Read post »In one of last week’s blog postings I featured a reflective comment from Gregory Knight, Department Head, Laboratory Services, U.S. Navy, that he posted at the bottom of my article “True to Our Souls.”Click here to read it..” That prompted Linda Morelli, Michael Darmody, and Ravi Tangri to add their insightful thoughts and feedback to […]
Read post »When we’re in the midst of highly turbulent change it’s easy to lose perspective. Here are a few observations I recently came across in my electronic library to put change in historical context. “In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these.” Paul Harvey, American radio commentator […]
Read post »It’s been happening so regularly I shouldn’t be so surprised when it happens yet again. I am talking about the “coincidence” of encounters or correspondence while I am working on something along those very lines. Last week I was finishing the manuscript to my latest book. It’s an extension and significant build upon the approaches […]
Read post »A few years ago I ran into an old acquaintance that I hadn’t seen for awhile. Our short conversation confirmed just why I hadn’t seen him in awhile – and wouldn’t see him again soon if I could help it. I started off with, “Hey Phil. How’s it going?” His response was, “Oh, you know; […]
Read post »It is said that everyone is Irish today – St. Patrick’s Day. Since I am not Irish, drinking regular or green beer was not a tradition growing up on my family’s Mennonite farm – and I love to get historical perspectives so I looked up St. Patrick’s Day on Wikipedia. I was astounded to learn […]
Read post »I continue to very much enjoy writing my latest book (working title is Thriving in Turbulent Times.) The book’s central model is around our choices to deal with change and adversity in our lives by leading, following, or wallowing. I’ll continue to post short excerpts like this one of my work in progress. To wallow […]
Read post »Keeping frontline staff engaged and energized is a growing problem. The leadership opportunities were just illustrated again last week in a couple of leadership development workshops with supervisors and managers who were frustrated by the low levels of morale and commitment from the staff on the teams they lead. They were quick to point to […]
Read post »I recently did some office reorganizing and came across the small model of a yellow Lamborghini Diablo and thank you note from David, a workshop participant. He had participated in a Leading @ the Speed of Change workshop and really connected with my garbage truck story as an example of building self-control – one of […]
Read post »“Nattering nabobs of negativism” was a phrase originally written by speechwriter William Safire for U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew to describe the media who opposed the Nixon administration’s policies. It’s an apt phrase for the professional pessimists in the media, especially these days. What’s considered “news” or reported as “reality” is overwhelmingly what’s wrong, not […]
Read post »Like the weather, many people talk about innovation but few managers do much about it. Unlike the weather, there is a lot managers can and must do about innovation – especially in difficult times. Innovation often falls into the same trap as strategic planning, economic forecasting, and change management. There is no orderly path that […]
Read post »A central theme in my decades of trying to understand, apply, and teach leadership skills is that leadership is an action, not a position. Leadership is what we do, not who we are. Who we become is determined by what we repeatedly think and do. All too many people in leadership roles don’t act like […]
Read post »In what may be a sad sign of our times, I recently received two e-mails from new web visitors/subscribers inside of a few days asking for advice on dealing with a toxic or bad boss. I have written quite a bit about upward leadership and dealing with a bad boss. One of my more comprehensive […]
Read post »It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had […]
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