Category: Leadership Thoughts
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Authentic Leaders: What do you stand for?
We’ve all heard the advice: “Fake it ’til you make it.” It shows up everywhere—from 1980s catchphrases like “I’m not a doctor, but I played one on TV” to today’s Instagram‑ready personal brands and sitcom‑inspired quips like “No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.” And to be fair, nobody is ever 100% “ready” when they step…
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Complexity: A Sign of Organizational Laziness
In my high school English class, most assignments came with the requirement “must be at least 10 pages”. Five short years later while pursuing my MBA, the final paper in my Organizational Strategy class had a very different requirement – “must not exceed 3 pages”. Imagine an entire semester’s work distilled to 3 pages. Oh,…
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Leadership Stories: There is no success without hardship . . . and support.
There is no success without hardship. Sophocles I recently had the great honor of being inducted into the Clarkson Athletic Hall of Fame for my exploits on the soccer pitch. While it’s true that there is no success without hardship, what people get wrong about Sophocles’ quote is that you never triumph over hardship on…
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Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, especially when it’s wrapped in a big compensation package
A friend of mine just got off the phone with the head of HR from a national company. The HR executive noted that his company’s growth prospects were being limited by the lack of executive talent due to a depleted bench. He felt that “outside” talent was needed to expand their footprint and to bring in…
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Forcing Honesty in the Workplace
One of the most difficult managerial tasks is providing honest feedback to employees, especially for new managers. Providing objective feedback, delivering the feedback in an appropriate manner, and being able to handle the employee’s reaction takes hours of preparation and can be anxiety producing. This is so difficult that many managers avoid providing honest feedback…
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Leadership Stories: The Importance of Storytelling
Storytelling has always been the most effective way to deliver a message about human behavior. There’s a time and place for everything My father was never one to walk away from a fight. As a young teen, he heard some kids being disrespectful to an elderly woman and he quickly stepped in and taught them a…
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Leadership Stories: Refuse to be Discouraged
For three days, he traveled only at night and rested in caves with a sack full of bread, cheese, and peppers, and his revolver. When he had finally crossed the border from what was Yugoslavia into Greece, he felt that he was one major step closer to realizing his dream of making it to America. His…
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Leadership Stories: Defining Moments
Everyday Leaders make decisions. The most important and difficult decisions occur when someone has to choose between “Right” and “Right”. These are what Joseph Badaracco calls “Defining Moments”. While either decision can be viewed as the right decision, the one you choose defines who you are and what you stand for. A Simple Example Fresh…
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Leadership Stories: Things are not always what they seem
All outward appearances were that this old lady should not be taken seriously. Unfortunately for the salesperson, she had honed her negotiating skills with more than 10,000 hours of experience. Here is the story. A Master at Work One of my favorite things to do with my grandmother, Baba Vickie, was to go shopping. It didn’t…
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Leadership Stories: The Value of Hard Work
From a young age, I was taught that there is honor in any job well done and that there is opportunity around every corner. All it takes is a goal, a desire to get there, and a lot of hard work. My family’s story is the embodiment of the American Dream: If you work hard,…