Are you an Idea Monkey or a Ringleader? Pick one.
At the Vistage Executive Summit in Los Angeles, speaker Mike Maddock asked us to identify which we were. When I turned to a couple of CEO’s I knew well and
Why was that a good or a bad decision?
Two weeks ago, I talked about making decisions. I laid out a list of eight steps to making a better decision. In working with a management team last week, we found a missing piece – going back afterwards and assessing whether that was a good or bad decision. Take the following example: should we launch […]
Ready for a merger?
Getting married after being single for 20 years has had me thinking a lot about mergers. The romantic part is quite lovely, and I could write many blogs about the non-business side. And, maybe I will
Do you know your leadership strengths?
From the time you were a little kid, you probably noticed that there were people who had totally different talents from you. It may have been very demoralizing if your brother played baseball better than you, or your sister got much better grades in math. In the Gallup StrengthsFinder analysis, there are 34 different leadership […]
What have CEOs learned from Mothers?
In today’s NY Times, Judith Shelevitz says: “Sociologists sometimes call the management of familial duties ‘worry work’, and the person who does it
Are you open for a little feedback?
Do you brace yourself when you get that question? Do you instantly expect bad news? Yet, what I hear from mid-level managers is
Are you looking at the right numbers to run a profitable business?
Now that tax time is over, and hopefully you are griping about the check you just wrote to Uncle Sam, I’ve got to ask – what numbers do you track to run your business? This may seem so simple, but I’ve found that finding and tracking the most meaningful activities that drive sales, efficiency and […]
Who is making things happen in New Orleans 10 years+ after Katrina?
My old friend grew up in New Orleans and basically left at 18. His father designed the sculpture in the picture. He toured us around for a couple of days and talked about the strict social rules and stratification in New Orleans while he was growing up. My nephew just moved here 3 weeks ago […]
How many languages do you speak?
The tour guide in Mumbai was asked, “How many languages do you speak?” He replied “Seven. English and Hindi, of course, and 5 South Indian languages.” Speaking more than one language is pretty common in India. What surprised me was how many people did not speak English.
I died a thousand deaths on the road to Agra
When we arrived in Orchha for lunch, we discovered that our train to Agra was currently 3 hours late and likely to be later or maybe cancelled.