How’s Your Reputation?

I known people like Frank.  In their quest for power they're willing to walk all over anyone in their path.  It often works for awhile. Of course, they leave a line of people just waiting to strike back, mostly in subtle ways.  People looking for ways to sabotage whatever the knife wielder...

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Did You Really Communicate?

I happened to run into a quote from George Bernard Shaw, the British playwright who died in 1950.  It seems to aim directly at one of the most common problems faced by executives...and just about everyone else.  "The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished."  George...

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Fight Your Inner Ogre

I've often thought that something happens to people when they reach the height of power.  Perfectly nice and friendly people liked by all seem to have a personality transfer: they become omnipotent...at least in their own minds. I've thought it was due to the sycophant effect, or the feeling that...

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Don’t Follow The Hurd

I was greatly saddened by the recent fall of Mark Hurd, ex-leader of Hewlett-Packard.  Here we have a man who rescued a moribund company and brought it back to health, a man making millions with a virtually unlimited expense account...a man respected for his achievement by most. And yet, a...

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What Did He Mean?

A few days ago I happened across an article in the Wall Street Journal by Lera Boroditsky...Lost In Translation.  It is a fascinating chat about how language influences our worldview...and more importantly, how different languages create significantly different worldviews. In Spanish or Japanese, "the lamp broke itself."  In English, "he...

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General McChrystal

I've been thinking about the resignation of General McChrystal since it happened a few weeks ago.  It had quite an impact on me, as it did on many of you.  A general taking a bullet for the team.  I was fascinated by the varying ways the story of what happened was discussed.  Most people put...

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If You Say It…Do It

It seems I've manage to sit down for the third week in a row to share some thoughts on running your business for greater success.  Before I forget, there might not be a missive next week since I will be off on Cortes Island British Columbia at a gathering...

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Oh no, Week 2: Committment

It's happened.  It's now exactly a week since my first writings on this blog.  It snuck up on me while I was off meeting with clients, doing some marketing meetings and calls about EOS, meeting with my students from Singapore, trying to find some Africa projects for Wharton, taking...

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