Blog2019-10-27T17:46:32-04:00

Embrace Processes For Business and Governance

Here is a typical situation when a leadership and organizational consultant goes into a new business to help them out. The consultant has a discussion with the client trying to get to the bottom of several issues in the front office. There are multiple paths that needed exploring, but the consultant's process tells him where to start. "Could I please see a copy of your organizational chart?" The client will often answer with something like: "We have four separate entities for business and tax purposes." Which prompts: "Do you have yourselves organized by an org chart?" "No." So the consultant [...]

By |December 2nd, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

It Is Time For Concern And Action

There is no longer any doubt about it. We are at a decision point in history. We are nearing the point at which we have the opportunity to throw the switch on the tracks of history to go down a new path. However, I fear we as a people are too busy with our necks craned down to look at our screens while the switch passes by us and we head down the tracks to major war abroad and on our own shores, upheaval we have not known since before World War II, and a major collapse of the social [...]

By |November 19th, 2016|Categories: Blog|1 Comment

Some Sociology, Thinking, and Leadership Ponderings…Post-Election

We need to talk. We need to listen. We need to love. Everyone. Our neighbors. Those who aren't our neighbors. The promise of technology, the internet and social media was that people would be able to get together in virtual communities. The reality is that people have used the information revolution to increasingly associate with people who are like themselves. People now use the internet to find neighborhoods to live in -- and the criteria includes, if not is dominated by, who else lives there. People the world over now read newspapers and magazines that focus on a specific point [...]

By |November 9th, 2016|Categories: Blog|1 Comment

Be A Better Leader By Connecting Ideas

Ideas. The best leaders live in the realm of ideas. Facts and details are great and necessary. But connecting ideas is what advances business and humanity. You've heard me say often that the senior leader's job is to stay above the daily fray and focus on the long-term vision and strategy (see here). I also contend that it is important to stretch your limits as a leader and why it is important to think beyond your knowledge set (see here). How comfortable are you saying "I don't know" or "what do I need to know to understand this better?" If [...]

By |October 27th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

But Are Facts Enough To Change Minds?

It's better to be right than first. We've talked often here about narratives in the past (see here and here) and why it is so critical for senior leaders to look for evidence when making decisions and developing strategies to achieve corporate objectives. Sunday's Washington Post featured an article titled "Amanda Knox is innocent. But are the facts enough to change minds?" The piece was a review of the new documentary on Netflix which delves into the details of Knox's case in an attempt to change the very public opinion formed without any hint of evidence of the facts. This [...]

By |October 3rd, 2016|Categories: Blog|4 Comments

We Should Reconsider Who We Call Allies

Perhaps it is time to have an internal dialogue within the Government and between our treaty partners about precision in language about what an ally is and isn't. And if necessary, we ought to take the bold steps of making formal changes to whom we call allies. It matters. I would contend allies and coalition partners are very measurably different. Coalition partners share short-term interests. Allies share deep and enduring virtues and values. As values evolve or change, so do and so should coalitions and alliances. Again, it matters. Who you associate with says something about you. We all know [...]

By |September 22nd, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Happiness, Well-being, Work and Pay

I sat in a client's office a couple of years ago when the client told me he didn't like my second Maxim (click on the link here to see the full list): Seek Balance in Life. He said that in his experience, people use the concept of balance to not work as hard as they ought to, or might, or should. There is a strong sense in the corporate and government worlds that those who see balance are "wussies" that don't pull their weight. Let me be specific: there are times when an employee must work overtime for long periods [...]

By |September 14th, 2016|Categories: Blog|1 Comment

How Willing Are You To Learn?

May I offer you a challenge? Carefully consider the following question: As a CEO or senior leader, how willing are you to learn? It may seem like a simple question. It may seem not worth your time. But indulge me for a minute. Go down the hallway to the rest room or close the door to your office and look at the mirror and ask yourself, in private, where nobody will know...how willing are you to learn? This may be the key question to you and your success in business, government or whatever field you are in. Nobody is going [...]

By |August 29th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Some Thoughts For Rising Professionals

Whether you are a young rising professional or are tagged to be a senior leader's executive assistant, there are some very sound steps to help you get through turbulent waters. Few people want to go through the pain of the steps required to rise through the ranks in the corporate world, but those who have the fortitude and follow some simple rules will most often come out on top. Realize that in most corporations, there really is a process for getting the best people to the right positions within the company. Yes, some are haphazard, especially if you find yourself [...]

By |August 25th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Fiddling While Rome Burns and The Right to Be Wrong

It has been a difficult week for liberalism in the world. The notion that people ought to respect the election results even if it puts in power those they oppose isn't working. The idea that cosmopolitanism - diversity and respect for other cultures - is better than everyone looking and thinking the same seems to be literally under attack in Europe. But perhaps our liberal institutions can shield us and help us ride through the rough times. Lets see. We were told a hundred times "Donald Trump can't win." Yet this week he accepts the nomination as the Republican Party's [...]

By |July 19th, 2016|Categories: Blog|4 Comments

Some business and leadership lessons from Brexit and what they mean for the future

How odd that the Washington Post said that the biggest "threat" to the European Union is the will of the people. The Brussels technocrats who have steadfastly maintained a distance between themselves and the people of the member countries all for the ostensible betterment of those people through routine and predictable rules of commerce and relations may soon find themselves out of work. The British populace did not create the tide that is threatening the European Union as well as markets and retirement funds around the world. It exposed the tide to elites who were too distant from the people [...]

By |June 27th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

The Social Contract, The Oregon Trail and New America (Yup, they go together…)

Last week I had a very serendipitous convergence. I had fresh in my memory the day two weeks ago that I spoke to the government classes at our local high school. It's not the kids' fault that they didn't know what the social contract is. The overwhelming sentiment among these seniors was that we should drastically cut or eliminate the government and that everyone ought to take care of themselves. So when I discussed the importance of people not having to expend all their energy defending themselves from sudden attack, from all the efficiencies that come from government-funded roads, police, [...]

By |May 25th, 2016|Categories: Blog|1 Comment

Professional Lessons From a Great Mentor

Last week, I visited a mentor who arguably taught me the most about professionalism in my early career; lessons that have stayed with me until. John Casciano certainly didn't look like the type that would rise to the highest levels of National Security leadership. Short in stature, he certainly wasn't going to rise based on having "the look." In an era of tremendous turbulence with the ossification of one major segment of his profession and he rise of another, he nimbly moved between segments in his corporate structure and rose in a very non-traditional career track. He used his intellect, [...]

By |May 23rd, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Once Again, Actions Speak Louder Than Words

When Air Force General Michael Fortney told his subordinate commanders to root our and do away with Queep (http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2016/05/03/2-star-general-puts-wasteful-queep-duties-crosshairs/83873648/), he continued a long tradition of senior leaders trying to Lean down their operations and do away with those meaningless duties that take away focus from the company's bottom line. Unfortunately, his directive is doomed to die on the vine like all the ones that came before it. Queep is a term now nearing 30 years old. It was a made up word that means all those extra duties that people in all lines of work have to do that that [...]

By |May 10th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

The Long Road of Professional Development – There’s Really No Easy Way

There is a popular notion these days that younger workers and professionals, especially millennials, aren't interested in working hard to put in their time before being promoted to leadership positions; that they somehow feel entitled to all they want without putting in the time like those who went before them. I'm not sure I buy it as an indictment on the entire generation. In fact I know I don't. There are fine examples of those that got ahead through hard work that I can tick off of by name upon request. But I can also give even more examples of [...]

By |May 2nd, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Truth Isn’t Good Or Bad, It Just Is

A recent publication of the entire results of a 40 year old study on health and diet puts another nail in the coffin of what "everybody knows" regarding diet and heart disease. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/12/this-study-40-years-ago-could-have-reshaped-the-american-diet-but-it-was-never-fully-published/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_most-draw5) This post isn't about what we should or shouldn't be eating. It is about truth in research and completeness in our search for knowledge. As the article clearly states, the findings of the very large, methodologically sound long-term study seriously challenge widely held beliefs about what we ought to be eating and as well as government dietary guidelines. When findings like these are discovered and published decades [...]

By |April 13th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Implications Of The Coming Presidential Election; Vote for Who You Will, But Think It Through

Realizing that we are all in the same boat as far as reading about and thinking over implications of the coming election, I've stayed away from sending out any emails or personal thoughts on what's coming up. This is NOT a post about who I think will win or who I think we should vote for. Just please indulge me for a few minutes as I write some words ahead of recommending this very thoughtful and well-considered article in Foreign Policy. I said well-considered, not necessarily accurate. Please read the article (see link below) even if you skip over my [...]

By |April 13th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Critical Thinking For Leaders

In previous posts we discussed how leaders have a responsibility to create organizational clarity, ensure the organization's identity and direction, create an organizational structure to meet the long-term objectives, to stay above the day-to-day fray and let their subordinates do their jobs, and to learn to say "I don't know." That all still applies. But how can leaders apply critical thinking to achieve these transcendent leadership roles? Leaders must practice critical thinking. That means they engage in a continuing, life-long process of analyzing and assessing their own thinking with the purpose of constantly improving it. Critical thinking requires discipline and [...]

By |March 11th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Truth Doesn’t Change Based on the Rank of the Recipient

I was overseas in 1997, on assignment in a Middle East country in what could only be described as an "everybody-has-to-go-through-it" temporary assignment. My predecessor had told me that the bad guys had slowly, over time, moved a host of military equipment to locations in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. But those movements didn't appear anywhere in official reports. Why, I asked. He responded by saying that nobody wants to make that call. So my colleagues (Todd Kelley and Dan Simpson) and I set about collecting evidence for what so many people believed had happened. We systematically recorded every [...]

By |March 1st, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Distilling Senior Leader Responsibilities

In previous posts we discussed the importance of senior leaders focusing on the long-range vision and strategy and leaving the day-to-day “doing” to your doers. But through lots of feedback and discussions in the field, it is time to put out another post on how to do that. Leaving the doing to the doers does not mean being unaware of what is happening. That can work when guidance is clear and there is unequaled trust in the subordinate. One example of this comes from Douglas MacArthur during World War II. When asked by a journalist one day what targets his [...]

By |February 17th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

Some Thoughts On Critical Thinking

The benefit of applying critical thinking methodology to all aspects of life is that you are rarely surprised, and when you are, you can more easily adapt. But the hard part is that, at first, you will be nearly universally scorned by those who either can't or won't think critically. Those that listened heard me correctly on my Art of Manliness podcast interview, that you have to very carefully tread the waters by slowly helping your boss come to the realization that asking for evidence is really important. Most leaders think that they got to their jobs by going with their gut. And [...]

By |February 11th, 2016|Categories: Blog|2 Comments

Goodness Breeds Goodness…Really

This is my first Maxim for leaders. It seems strange to many that I speak of goodness before market share or process refinement or the importance of a corporate strategic plan. But I put it first deliberately and not for some pretend altruism. Before all else, goodness can make an organization. No matter your job, no matter your position, no matter your rank, if you show genuine goodness towards all people, they will go out of their way to help you succeed. I have personally observed as well as read about countless cases in which coworkers and subordinates drop everything [...]

By |February 2nd, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

More is more. You have to make it better.

More is better, right? More food for less money at the buffet; trackers on every shipping container to know what is inside and where it is in the world; more watts for less money per light bulb; more gigabytes of data per month on your mobile phone plan; more surveillance to help stop terrorist attacks. But I'd like to offer an alternative idea. More and more is not necessarily better. More often diverts our attention from what is important and gives us a false sense of security. Hang with me here. The more open, democratic, bureaucratic a country is, the more [...]

By |January 11th, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

This Week, Review and Renew Your Most Important Truth

Who are you and what do you want to be? Those are the two most important questions any business leader must answer when beginning a new business or job. And it is always important to review what you said when you started and renew your commitment to those answers at the beginning of each new year. When you began this venture or job, you should have, as succinctly as possible, stated who you are and what you wanted to be. Your honesty in this question is vital. It doesn't matter whether anyone else likes your answer. It matters that you [...]

By |January 3rd, 2016|Categories: Blog|0 Comments

This Time of Year, Leaders Should (re)Read This Classic

There are few people who have not read the original or watched a TV version of Charles Dickens's, A Christmas Carol. As a story of a life redeemed, it is one that few people I've ever met can say anything negative about. Sure, we love to go see the play at Ford's Theater or our local town production. For those who have never listened to the Patrick Stewart one-man stage play in which he acts out every character in the story, you owe yourself the small time to be moved as everyone is who has ever heard it. But what does [...]

By |December 21st, 2015|Categories: Blog|0 Comments
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