Leadership

If you think dreams are for children and emotions have no place in business, then chances are you're missing out on tremendous opportunity and walking the same familiar trail to market.  Recognizing an employee's personal dreams and talents while channeling their passions and interests to support overarching business goals is the heart of leadership and the innovative enterprise.  Teamwork isn't dead; it's just that few organizations really know how to break down barriers to acceptance and open...

We all want to achieve high performance, whether on the stage, on the court, or in the office.  And yet we can find ourselves tripped up by the words of others or the memory of a failure.  "If only I knew more," you think, "or had more experience." "Why don't the right words come out when I talk with her?" "I'll never get the promotion.  There are too many good candidates." "I thought I could do this, but now I'm not so sure.  What if my timing is all wrong?" From time to time, we're...

"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgment."--Will Rogers I heard this inspiring quote for the first time in February, mentioned by my friend and counselor Sam Meers at a gathering I wish could have happened at some far, distant time in the future.  As it is, we were saying good-bye to a friend, a man who was bigger than life. Even as I heard Sam speak those words, they crept into my head and quietly spoke to me for months.  I'm finally writing about them because...

Subtitled: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way. Complacency makes me want to stick a fork in my eye. To be so ambivalent or uncommitted, nay neutral on almost any topic simply defies my capacity for cogitation. I mean, what about “good” is good? Sure doesn’t smell like “great” from here. That’s where I want to be.  Always, on everything. I realize I’m not the most objective person when it comes to determining corporate comfort zones. I readily admit that I’m a risk-taker (maybe...