Once the curtain has been pulled back and we understand that The Wizard is just an ordinary person, the booming voice from the disembodied, intimidating head doesn't work well anymore. There are three management practices that don't work well anymore (if they ever did), yet many pretend that they do. These are pretenses you need to [...]
In Good to Great, Jim Collins researched and codified a surprising fact: that leadership matters a great deal in taking organizations from good to great. He said that good-to-great leaders seemed to come from a completely different mold when compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, [...]
In the movie, The Hunger Games, North America has been destroyed by some unknown apocalyptic event and the nation of Panem exists in its place. Pamen consists of a wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts. As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 [...]
Dudley Do-Right was the hero of a segment of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, a cartoon entertainment show from my youth. Dudley was a dim-witted but cheerfully optimistic Canadian Mountie who was ever trying to apprehend his nemesis, Snidley Whiplash. Dudley was romantically interested in the lovely Nell Fenwick, daughter of Inspector Fenwick, commander of [...]
This story is told by David Kirk Hart, former professor at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management. It comes to me by way of my good friend and storyteller, Jim Ericson. "During World War II, a British war correspondent had gone into Normandy. He was particularly disgusted by the fact that the generals were living [...]
According to TIME magazine article "Lies, Lies, Lies" (Oct 5, 1992), "Lies flourish in social uncertainty, when people no longer understand, or agree on, the rules governing their behavior toward one another." Whew! That was close; I thought I had to bear responsibility for my truthfulness, or lack thereof. TIME made it society's fault. The [...]
The business owners and senior managers I know who are really good leaders are frequently tired. It’s a good tired, but tired nonetheless. It’s a lot like the tired you get from a spirited game of tennis, a fairly serious jog or, in my case, a long bike ride. It’s not a “lay down on [...]
Today, Walter Issacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs will be released to the general public. Many interesting "leaks" from pre-lease copies have been published over the past few days. Steve Jobs excelled in thinking differently. Apple iPods changed how we listen to music, iTunes disrupted the music business, iPhones put the mobile telecommunications business into a new [...]
“I did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home.” - Rosa Parks On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was seated on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. When the driver ordered her to give up her seat so a white passenger could take it, she refused. This simple [...]
"If you could make God bleed, people will cease to believe in Him... there will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come." Ivan Vanko (actor Mickey Rourke), Iron Man 2. In the movie Iron Man 2, the hero, Tony Stark (actor Robert Downey, Jr.) has made the world aware of his dual identity, [...]
