Leading Smart

On the way to the gym this morning I heard a radio ad that I’ve heard several times before. It’s from the International Star Registry. It’s a mind-boggling scam. These people offer the chance to “name a star”, and tout it as a “great gift” — “a gift that will […]

People often make New Year’s Resolutions — personal goals to remake themselves. Most often these involve quitting smoking (as I did 30+ years ago) or losing weight (as I need to) or other self-improvement goals. But they almost never involve their work life. I’m here to beseech you otherwise. This […]

It’s an ancient theme of comedians, as old as comedy itself. It goes something like: A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t. A man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change, and she does. It’s told many different ways, but the essence is that […]

There is a great article in the Wall Street Journal today [Note: I believe this link is subscription-only]. The title of the article says it all: “When $70 Million is Not Enough”. It is about how a star at Goldman Sachs, aptly named Mark McGoldrick (nicknamed “Goldfinger”), quit because he […]

I talk a great deal about visions. About how they should drive organizations, about what they should contain, and about the importance they have on the effectiveness of teams. I see many cases of strong, clear, focussed visions leading to great success. And I see the opposite. I see organizations […]

Like many police departments these days, Seattle’s is under fire for the handling of a number of incidents, and the possibility that the officers overreacted. I’m not going to dive into the depths of the argument over individual cases. It is so hard to be sure of the facts, and […]

Mike Hargrove, the manager of the Seattle Mariners walked into work this morning as said “today is my last day as manager of the Seattle Mariners”. To say this was a shock would be a vast understatement. The thing that was most curios about the announcement was his reasoning. He […]

Here’s a quiz for you: who has more retail outlets — Starbucks or General Motors (GM)? If you listen to all the late night comics with their shtick on Starbucks and how there’s one on every corner, you think you know the answer. Well, you’d be wrong. Starbucks has about […]

If you’ve followed along with this blog, you know a couple of things: It’s past time for some sort of recognition for the one year anniversary, and I’ve been quite remiss in posting over the last month or so. As to the former, I say: “bah humbug!” I have grown […]

Once in a while, as a manager, you will be fortunate enough to have a team member who is a superstar. These people are not just above average, they are vastly better. They are smarter, more driven, highly focused, and they get far more work done than the rest. It […]

Recently, a good friend of mine told me the story of a sick performance review and reward system. I mean “sick” as ill, broken, maybe even sickening — not “sick” as the youth today refer to something really cool. The system bases rewards on the performance feedback from those around […]

A good friend of mine is part of the senior management team for the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” project. As a student of project management, I love to catch up with him every now and then to discuss this unbelievably complex endeavor. While I’ve been up-close-and-personal to tremendously large and complex […]