Quote: Leadership vs management

Ross Perot is 78 years old today. He is a successful businessman (founder of both Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems), one of the wealthiest people in America, and a former presidential candidate (1992 and 1996).

“Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be led.”

Ross [...]

I’m not really normal

While visiting relatives in our hometown of Tulsa last week, I found myself on kitchen duty with my brother-in-law one afternoon. Cleaning the kitchen during the holidays is somewhat like trying to hit a moving target, because the activity never really ends — it just reaches a lull between two peaks.
But we eventually conquered the [...]

Practicing gratitude

In yesterday’s post, I wrote “As Thanksgiving approaches, this seems like a perfect time to start practicing gratefulness and honing that mindset.”
But how to we “practice gratefulness?” It sounded like a good suggestion, but it also felt a little incomplete without some sort of practical application. And to be honest, I didn’t have any great [...]

Don’t forget to say “Thanks”

Sending a Thank You note following a job interview, an informational meeting, or a networking event is a simple way to stand out. I always thought this was a common courtesy, but I discovered last spring just how uncommon it really is. Then I recently attended a meeting where a panel of recruiters agreed that [...]

Quote: Creating leaders

Happy Birthday, Tom!
Today’s birthday quote honors one of my (well, shoot — one of everybody’s) favorite business writers and thinkers, Tom Peters.
Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.
Tom Peters (b. 11.7.1942)

Quote: The best executive

In honor of Teddy Roosevelt’s birthday, I wanted to share a bit of his wisdom:
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
 
Teddy Roosevelt
26th President of the United States (1901 - [...]

Four questions (and answers) for managers

For a recent article in the Columbia Business Times, five management consultants were asked to respond to following four questions.

What are a few steps small businesses can take to create better work environments? Conversely, what are some mistakes that companies make that create poor work environments?
There are horror stories out there about well-intentioned team-building exercises [...]

Quote: self-awareness

More leaders could use a dose of self-awareness, like Reeko (the skunk) in Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild:

“I always thought they didn’t want me around because I was a skunk, well…you know it turns out they didn’t want me around because I was a jerk.”
Self-awareness is the first step in discovering your [...]

Wannateam?

Thanks to DUST!N for drawing my attention to this site, an online whiteboard where people can move letters around. After a mind-numbing few minutes of watching this insanity, it occurred to me that this a perfect example of art immitating life. The process reminds me of how we often behave in meetings and on project [...]

The Profane Leader?

Profanity in the workplace used to relegated to dimly-lit smoke-filled testosterone-raging boardrooms, but has become more mainstream in recent years. Call me old-fashioned, but this strikes me as an unfortunate trend. Those who habitually curse and swear are not gaining respect and influence as they might imagine, and may in fact be hurting their careers. [...]