Initially released in 31 weekly installments, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities concluded 160 Novembers ago yet offers crucial lessons for today’s leaders. The story alternates between Paris before …

Will Your Reputation be Built to Last? Visiting Mount Rushmore has been on my bucket list for some time.  My wife, daughter, son-in-law and I recently made the pilgrimage to …

Learn from the “Father of Advertising” My daughter Jordan, who works in the Chicago office of Ogilvy, will be celebrating her birthday this Saturday. She inspired me to post a …

The Leadership Advice You Need Twenty-five years ago, the doors of Bustin & Co. opened and my career as a leadership speaker, business coach, author, and Vistage Master Chair took …

25 Years of Bustin & Co. + 25 Timeless Guidelines for Leaders Twenty-five years ago today the doors of Bustin & Co. opened and the journey towards finding my sweet …

Your Driving Habits Offer Clues A version of this article was first published in June 2012, was reposted five years ago due to its popularity and has been updated as …

What are the best books about leadership? Here are my top 7 for this summer: The leaders I work with are continuous learners with hearty appetites for great leadership books. …

What’s Your Next Big Decision? Excerpt from How Leaders Decide, the #1 new historical reference book on Amazon. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely …

A Leader’s Job: Confront Reality America’s early days as a nation were shaped by big decisions.  Bold, gutsy decisions. Even decisions to intentionally avoid making a decision. The signers of …

Start the New Year with Your Values, Goals and Relationships Aligned As 1968 became 1969, George Harrison felt as if the Beatles “were reaching the end of the line.” While …

Herb Kelleher, the co-founder, CEO and Chairman Emeritus of Southwest Airlines passed away last Thursday at the age of 87. He was an admirable innovator and an exceptional leader that …

Announcement as airplane is pushing back from the gate: “Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome aboard. This is Southwest flight ABC with nonstop service to Dallas Love Field. So if …

Watching The Nutcracker in its various forms is an integral part of the holidays in America. These performances generate around 40% of annual ticket revenues for many major ballet companies. …

Brown’s Job was Difficult to Describe The memo—folded once and stamped “Personal & Confidential” in red ink—was slipped under my office door after hours on December 29. December 29, 1988. …

A Timely Leadership Lesson from Eleanor Roosevelt Today in America is Election Day. Have you voted? If not, will you? It’s easy to take certain freedoms for granted, and in …

Wit and Wisdom from Football’s Best We’re five weeks into the college football season and some teams are peaking while others are already fading. How’s your team doing? When the …

We’ve seen plenty of dysfunction in our government for quite some time now. But The New York Times op-ed essay by an anonymous senior official in the Trump administration offers …

What’s the difference between consulting and coaching? Fourteen years ago I was contacted by Vistage International—the world’s largest peer advisory organization for CEOs, presidents and partners. I’d been referred as someone …

Animal House Turns 40 September means “Back to school,” and this year one of America’s most famous college campuses—the fictional Faber College in National Lampoon’s Animal House—turns 40. The 1978 film …

Three Secrets for an Effective Planning Session Ten years ago, David Collis and Michael Rukstad’s article “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” was published in the Harvard Business Review. …