Articles

There are a number of ways to detect the “soul” of an organization. I like to look at the obvious external signs. There are a number of ways to detect the “soul” of an organization. Although it can be a lot of fun to get inside a company or group […]

In a recent article in BusinessWeek magazine, Jack and Suzy Welch advocated active pruning of the jerks from your organization. They said “nothing hurts a company more than when the bosses ignore, indulge, or otherwise tolerate a jerk.” They go on to compare employees on two scales, performance and values. […]

One of the things I hear so often from leaders I’ve worked with is how quickly a casual comment of theirs got blown out of proportion. It’s almost as if the simple, off-hand remark they made a couple of months ago grew legs and got a life of its own. […]

Jill and Family The world is not the same today. My long time personal assistant, Jill, passed away last night. She battled bravely against the cancer that started in her breast and eventually claimed her entirely. At the completely unfair age of only 37. I am a better person for […]

One of the toughest parts of being a leader is walking the line between democracy and fascism. When it comes to the essential elements of your mission, where does consensus become chaos, where does direction become dictatorship? This is one of the most important questions of style managers face. And […]

Time, quality, price — pick any two. When it comes to project management, truer words were never spoken. I know it sounds like a tired old cliché that people trot out at the first sign of project difficulty. And, sure, it sounds trite and even seems to violate my rant […]

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who break the world into two kinds of people and those who don’t. Yes, that’s a funny line. It’s funny because it’s ironic to be sure, but like many things, it’s also funny because it is so true. It seems […]

Reading an interesting article in Fortune Magazine entitled “How to Build Great Teams” made me think about the classic debate: do I want a team of superstars or a team of simply good people who work together superbly? The world is filled with examples of both, and this article seems […]

Want to make the minimum wage yet still gross almost $100,000 a year? Be a dealer in casino in Las Vegas. Want to make a little more than half that amount? Be their supervisor. Wynn Las Vegas Resort That’s right, even though the minimum wage in Nevada is just $6.15 […]

I was reading a very interesting note from Robert Scoble’s blog about business cards (Business card best practices) and it made me think. Many of the things he talks about are great advice, and some of them are very cool. A great example of “cool” is the famous card of […]

I had the privilege joy chore of taking the flight from Seoul to Seattle a couple of days ago. If you haven’t had this fortune, it’s a 10 hour flight through 16 time zones where you arrive 6 hours before you left. I’m not a good sleeper on planes so […]

I had some errands in town this morning, so I stopped in the local diner for breakfast. Nice, pleasant place with a good veggie omelet. Unfortunately today, it was not quiet. Twice, neighboring people took calls on their cell phone and loudly discussed the most personal of business, for the […]