I can hear you thinking (those of you who know me), "What about BHAGs (big, hairy, audacious goals) and 'big thinking' and even 'big ideas' – you believe in those things?" True enough. Now, please read the title of the post again... "no more grandiose...". Grandiose. Grandiose means "impressive because of unnecessary largeness or grandeur." [...]
A dear friend and mentor once told me, “Being a manager is easy: you make decisions. If you make a bad decision, you correct it with another one. If you make too many bad decisions, you’re in the wrong job.” He later went on to explain that, “...how you see the issue determines how you’ll [...]
Are not. Am too. Are not! Am too! That's an argument no one wants to have. With good reason. It's going nowhere. Good arguments, or passionate debates, are necessary for great relationships to grow. Look into any meaningful relationship – marriage, friendship or business – and you'll find productive conflict. Conflict is a reality. It simply [...]
Picture a small boy in a candy store with a $20 bill in his pocket. As he looks around the store at all the wonderful delights, he knows he can have anything he wants! Fast forward to the point where he has a temper tantrum because he can’t have everything. We can excuse this behavior [...]
Charisma is to leadership as external stimulants are to getting in shape or winning. A leader's charisma can make the leader – and their followers – feel like things are going great. Sometimes performance IS improved by a charismatic leader – but only temporarily, and not in a sustainable fashion. Followers, like the human body, [...]
Earlier this week I was reflecting on Dr. Martin Luther King's quote, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” and if it might apply to my world as an advisor to business owners and senior executives. It does. A few years ago, during a lunch with Marshall Goldsmith, he reminded [...]
Sometimes executives, and other managers, exhibit bad behavior. It happens. Managers are people, too. Occasionally, however, executives are abusive, in the same way that a few people are “abusive personality types.” As I said, managers are people, too. With these abusive types we have come to expect raised voices, outrageous accusations, flushed faces, stern looks, [...]
Steve Jobs' biographer, Walter Issacson, tells how when Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 the company was producing a "random array of computers computers and peripherals, including a dozen different versions of the Macintosh." After a frustrating series of what probably felt like a never ending march of product briefings, Jobs called for a stop. [...]
"There is great tension in the world, tension toward a breaking point, and men are unhappy and confused. At such a time it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and what must I fight against?" - John Steinbeck, East of [...]
Have you noticed that things take time? Great things seem to take even longer. Nine months to get a child. Four years (+/-) to get a college education. Almost forever to gain wisdom. Our Western culture has different metrics. We want it now. Instant could be a little faster, if you please. Fast food. Speed [...]
