As many of you know, I am a huge advocate of character as the foundation for great leadership.  It’s been my experience over the past 30 years both within university and business, that the character of the leader has more to do with ultimate success than anything else, including competence, courage, and certainly more than […]

Years ago, I had a very difficult boss. One-on-one he wasn’t a bad guy. He was warm and likable. But in a group—particularly in meetings—he become another person. Dr. Jekyll became Mr. Hyde. He would suddenly become cold and aloof. If I, or someone on my team, reported good news, he either didn’t acknowledge it […]

“Change” is a dirty word for some people. But love or hate it, change is here to stay, and every business owner and manager must be effective at leading their teams through both small and large changes. How do most managers manage change? Most successful managers I know are leftbrain, bottom-line, sequential problem solvers. They […]

Mistake #1: Failure to plan. The most frightening and common mistake leaders make is to have no plan or template to follow before, during, or even after a crisis occurs. During a crisis, a leader must align three critical strategic elements: the Goals, the People, and the Resources. The goals define the “What” – that is, […]

“Everything I do is important.” That’s the answer I always hear when I ask my consulting clients and workshop audiences to tell me some of the things they do at work that really are not important. You and I both know that we all do things at work that are really not that important. Yet […]

Here is a simple three-step process to guarantee great execution. “Know what you do best, & relentlessly execute the basics.” That was the response I received one day on the golf course when I asked the CEO of a world class organization how he sustains a culture of perpetual excellence. In today’s cash-strapped market, it […]