This morning’s commute was wrong right from the beginning. On the way to the train station, it felt like every light was red, a van recklessly entering the highway avoided disaster by the grace of attentive drivers, and the side street that is my shortcut was blocked by fire engines. Miraculously early to the station, I watched the local train, relatively …
Ignore Unimportant Stuff
I was speaking with a group of leaders a few months ago and we were talking about another executive, we’ll call her “Susan”. Susan managed a large and complex team that was in need of transformation. It performed well enough on most things but it wasn’t performing well on the things that were most important to the company’s goals. So, …
You’re making decisions the wrong way.
View PostTake a vacation. Get a raise.
More and more Americans are not taking their earned, paid vacations. We’ve all seen this behavior in the corporate world. It’s the “work martyr” syndrome. Hard working, ladder climbers don’t take vacation because only losers take vacation. Winners work. You can almost hear Blake saying “A-B-W. A-Always. B-Be, W-Working. Always be working” But evidence shows that taking time off is …
Six steps to improve employee engagement and your success.
I was in a meeting a few months ago with a large group of executives. It was one of those unique corporate gatherings that you leave after an hour and feel like it was time well spent. During that time we were casting our goals and objectives not only in terms of business outcomes but also in terms of culture …
10 Leadership Lessons from a Senior Non-Commissioned Officer
Last fall, the Army Times published an article with 10 Leadership Tips from Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey. SMA Dailey’s advice was for the senior non-commissioned leaders of the US Army. While his leadership lessons apply to those leading soldiers, in the right context they serve as guideposts for leaders everywhere. Here’s my take on SMA Dailey’s concepts …
Your past is not your future. Let it go.
I’ve led a half-dozen organizations during the past decade and each one had unique challenges to overcome: operations in disarray; technology that wasn’t functioning right; messy data; right person, wrong job; wrong person. In each of these situations a shift was needed and that shift often required change across the business platform. And in most cases it required a significant …
Distractions
In 1996 I went to work for a very talented executive at Prudential Financial. Fresh out of business school I was hired into a newly formed internal consulting organization that traveled the world fixing operational problems in claims and call centers for their insurance and healthcare businesses. It was an exciting time in my career and everyone in the organization …
Start with your employees
I was in a meeting last week with a large group of executives. It was one of those meetings that you leave after an hour and feel like it was time well spent. We were casting our goals and objectives for the coming months not only in terms of business outcomes but also in terms of culture change. During the …
Going All In
My grandfather was a professional card player after World War One. He spent a number of years wandering the country trying to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. He ended up working in the Veteran’s Administration and for the American Legion for decades. His commitment and service to those who served was …
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