Recently I have been asked to lead several board and executive retreats through their annual strategic planning process. The similarities of their challenges are startling similar – regardless of industry, non-profit or for-profit organizations.
The days of plentiful donations for non-profits are gone. Double digit growth, for most companies, is a friend of distant past. Layoffs [...]

Most business executives relish in the perceived power behind the word accountability.  For employees it is either a welcomed set of expectations and boundaries which drive performance OR it becomes a marker which conjures up fear, insecurity, and concern of not being able to meet the expectation.
Without the ability to hold individuals accountable, a leader’s [...]

There have been many books written on Ethics over the years – including The Good Life by Gomes, The Ethics of Leadership by Ciulla, and a personal favorite, Ethics 101 by John Maxwell.
Frankly, as rich as so many of these books are, we often have a tendency to read them, even have the best of [...]

In a February 2009 Fortune magazine article, Jim Collins, said: “In times of great duress, tumult, and uncertainty, you have to have moorings. Companies like P&G, GE, J&J, and IBM have an incredible fabric of values, of underlying ideals or principles that explained why is was important that they existed. The more challenged you are, [...]

“If all people see is anger, they’ll see anger. Do you ever remember a person not likeable winning?” Rahm says, slapping Massa on the chest. “Be likable.”
This was the direct quotation inadvertently recorded when Rahm Emmanuel was giving this advice to Congressman Eric Massa. This recorded conversation has had a resurgence of interest and media play [...]

Recently I had the fabulous opportunity to build a workshop with a colleague around the topic of Resiliency. It was a topic in which I have personally grown very familiar over the past several years. Yet, frankly, I had not directly translated my personal experiences of ‘bouncing back’ to the criticality of this same capability [...]

Last month I had the privilege of co-leading the first of several leadership development workshops at Uplift Charter Schools. As a member of the University of Michigan faculty, I have the wonderful opportunity to work alongside Noel Tichy, again. This work is similar to the transformational effort we successfully led with the New York City [...]

J.D. Salinger, noted reclusive yet renowned author of The Catcher in the Rye, died earlier this month. A client of mine recently called to my attention a quote from Holden Caulfied, Salinger’s famous character in the book.
“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. [...]

Happy 2010 everyone! I hope your year is off to a great start. Many of you have asked me to recap the most popular posts from 2009 – so my first posting of 2010 is just that: The Top Ten Between The Lines for 2009!
If you missed any of these, I hope you will read them as [...]

It seems like every time I turn around I am reading a blog, an article, or hearing someone talk about ‘networking’ and ‘making contacts’ to develop your business. Frankly, I have never felt comfortable with the words ‘networking’ or ‘contacts’ – they seem so impersonal. I have developed a passionate view around this topic and [...]