An organization reveals its personality by how it meets or misses deadlines. What I often see are two distinct personalities within a single organization. Call it organizational multiple personality disorder: …

Summer’s over. It’s back to school for business. The best business leaders are lifelong learners, so brush up on your Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Reading 1. Man’s Search for Meaning – …

Navigating a Business World Full of Pirates and Traitors How do good people go bad? For Bartholomew Roberts, the route from honest sailor to Black Bart, the most successful pirate …

The first battles of the American Revolutionary War were fought at Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775. The Battle of Yorktown that culminated on 19 October 1781 with Lieutenant …

Winds howled and rain strafed the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force command post just north of Portsmouth in Hampshire, England. The worst weather in 20 years was wreaking havoc with months …

Money Matters: Questions to Ask About Money As a leader, it is important to know where your values stand. Your approach to money influences your decision-making, both personal and professional. …

3 Tips for Better Employee Coaching If you’re a good leader, you’re probably a good problem solver. But are you a good coach? Coaching means you’re no longer out front. …

Remembering the Alamo On 2 March 1836, delegates of the provincial government of Texas finally made a decision: declaring independence from Mexico. Four days later, the Alamo fell. While the …

“I quit.” Those words and others like them are spoken more often by more people by the last week of February than at any other time of the year. The …

On our family’s recent trip to the Galapagos Islands, we experienced some of the phenomena peculiar to this archipelago that helped inform Charles Darwin’s controversial and ground-breaking theories in On …

Here comes Halloween. History suggests that Halloween has its origins in feasts and festivals, celebrating everything from the autumnal harvest to the festivals of the dead. As a result, ghosts, goblins, …

When successful companies are profiled, the logical question to ask years later is, “How are they doing today?” In “Accountability” I profiled two dozen companies and their leaders whose commitment …

When Will You Decide Enough is Enough? In an earlier post, 8 Questions to Ask About Accountability, we tackled the topic of underperformance and took a fresh look at confronting …

Running the Race with a Sense of Urgency In 1936, political storm clouds were swirling. But as the Summer Olympics opened at Berlin’s Olympiastadion before a crowd of 100,000, the …

Uncover Leadership Development Clues Are you wondering whether your next generation of leaders has what it takes to lead people, make difficult decisions, and get things done? This simple idea …

Mount Rushmore turns 75 this year. As summer arrives and tourists take to the roads, Mount Rushmore will be among the top sites visited. The history and circumstances surrounding this …

On the recent occasion of my birthday, a well-wisher sent me 10 thoughts on growing old from American humorist Will Rogers. Will Rogers began building his reputation as a satirist …

A Backyard Miracle For the past four weeks my wife Janet and I have watched a mother duck sitting on a nest of eggs by our pool. From watching her, …

Today is the Ides of March. In ancient Rome, the day fell on the 15th day of March and was celebrated with religious observances and festivals. The date became notorious …

Human beings crave communication. We want it as affirmation, information, instruction and entertainment. Knowing this, we still miss the mark. We provide too little information. Or too much. We communicate …