In Search of Predictability

If you listen to the emerging trends in Corporate America, you will hear conversations about the importance of reading enormous amounts of data. The current belief is that there is so much data that more people in the organization will need to develop skills to analyze it. Currently, those skills have belonged to people in the IT department. However, there are individuals in other business units that may be able to combine their knowledge of customers with the ability to assess data.

On the surface, this seems like a logical step. In the age of knowledge workers, businesses should better utilize the intellectual capital of human capital. This would seem to help leadership better understand and predict customer behavior. As a result, strategy becomes much more clear and predictable.

From another perspective, if companies stop at developing skills to analyze data, it will be the catalyst for

Voltaire Quotes On Why You Can't Get Lucky

"Chance is a word that does not make sense. Nothing happens without a cause." Voltaire

Whether you call it chance, luck or being in the right place at the right time, you are simply talking about myths. Not one of those words is ever a factor in high performance. Too often, people attribute luck to extraordinary success.  

In fact, the Monday morning quarterback can give you rational explanations for how things happen in sports, business or life in general. However, they never give you

What’s More Important Than Shareholder Value?

For decades, CEOs and boards have had an incessant focus on maximizing shareholder value. However, in a number of recent articles, many pundits have articulated the undermining effect of increasing shareholder value. They now say that it sacrifices long-term value creation for customers. While there are an exhausting number of eloquent discussions about the disasters of focusing on shareholders, no one has clearly stated what CEOs’ primary focus should be. 

As the Chairman of an organization that brings together former CEOs of Fortunes 1000s with current CEOs of midsize companies, I am in a position to engage both sides of the table – the younger and more mature. One of the consistent comments I hear from former CEOs is that the number one job of a CEO is to

What Do You Learn From Your Mistakes?

“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” – John C. Maxwell

The mistakes we make can be a great way to learn. However, if we blame others for our mistakes, we are more likely to repeat them over and over.

Admitting our mistakes is a powerful way of taking responsibility for our lives. Reflecting on what we learned is a great way to develop ourselves and to become better contributors to society.  When we can correct and clean up those mistakes, we not only

Jack Nichols quote on listening long enough

“Every person I work with knows something better than me.  My job is to listen long enough to find it and use it.” – Jack Nichols

Listening is the gift to speaking. One of the greatest sensations is being heard and understood by another human being. It provides us with a sense of value and freedom to express ourselves. On the other hand, when someone pigeon holes us, we feel impeded and minimized.

You may know more than the person speaking to you. Regardless, you don’t

When Does Happiness Happen?

Happiness is that unrelenting joy, the undeniable Duchenne smile or an incredible peace of mind. Except, what is it that really makes us happy? Chocolate can raise endocrine levels and the idea of vacation time offers relaxation. However, they cannot define the intangible idea that we call happiness. In fact, if you’re asked to show someone happiness, you cannot. Why? It doesn’t exist. At least, it does not exist because of what we find inside or outside of ourselves.

From day one, we’ve carried around

Michael Pritchard's quote on fear

"Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed." Michael Pritchard

In the dark corners of our minds, we create lasting pieces of fear, impeding success. Oftentimes, we fear what we know about ourselves. We make presuppositions about what could happen and when we want to accomplish something new, we predetermine our limits.

Our past assesses what we do well and what we can’t do. We make assumptions without

Has Facebook Lost Face?

What happened? Since the advent of Facebook’s $38-per-share price, the stock has done nothing but drop. Was it the investment bankers overwhelming the company, NASDAQ computers malfunctioning and not postponing, overvaluation of Facebook’s claim to an IPO, or simply arrogance and inexperience?

While all of the factors listed contributed to Facebook’s underperforming stock price, Mark Zuckerberg held the final decision. In the world of IPOs, his tech savvy was

Mandela's quote on hidden greatness

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who

Is It Possible To Shed Your Deepest Fears?

Look carefully into the future, and you will clearly see what’s there: Nothing! Even if you look at tomorrow, the future is empty waiting to be filled. Oftentimes though, you and I immerse the future with our past. Tomorrow therefore, appears no different than yesterday. Hence, the sayings like: same thing different day. 

If you cleaned up your past to give you the freedom to enter tomorrow with nothing, what would you be able to

Should You Hire an Executive Coach?

While not everyone is interested in becoming CEO, career growth is important. In fact, many large organizations have their own training and development curriculums. These programs enable people to become better problem solvers, managers, and project managers.

Oftentimes however, company training lacks crucial

Quote: Rudyard Kipling Says Great Leaders Are Like Alpha Wolves

“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” – Rudyard Kipling

Titans throughout understand this concept. Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates. Each of them surrounded himself with effective and powerful people. Without their companions, they would be nothing.

Rockefeller once hired

Do You Have It All Backwards?

As people, we strive for success, whether it be through career, lifestyle, relationships, etc. We claim that once we have the right job, spouse, car, clothes, etc., we will be able to do the things we really want, and eventually become the person we’ve always wanted to be. This strategy however, is not only backwards looking: it will require more years than most will ever live to accomplish it.

Instead, consider the phrase “Be, Do, Have.” Before anything, decide whom you want to be known as: Successful? Trustworthy? Responsible? Kind? Only then will you be able to focus your

Quote: How Do You Gain Wisdom?

A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether. – Roy Williams

What a concept. It’s great when the wise seek advice from the intelligent. Unfortunately, most of us today believe we have nothing in common with the past generation.

Back in the day, youths gathered around the elders to gain insight and knowledge. Now however, many younger people pontificate

Quote from Andrew Carnegie on: Devoting 100% of your capabilities

1835-1919

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%. – Andrew Carnegie

To be 100% devoted requires more than finishing everything on a to do list. True, these lists can be loaded. For some though, it may be nothing more than “busy work”. Without 100% of your effort, it could build nothing more than a reputation for looking good.

Those truly devoted will do whatever it takes to fulfill their goal. Before action is taken however, it must be preceded by

Is Microsoft a Death Waiting To Happen?

Has Microsoft Become a Dinosaur?

In the August edition of a Vanity Fair article, it describes how Microsoft has implemented a poisonous management strategy. The author of the article, Kurt Eichenwald, interviewed many current and former employees of Microsoft. Everyone he interviewed commented on a management system called “stack ranking” being destructive to Microsoft’s ability to innovate.

Stack ranking requires every business unit to

What Kind of Determination Do You Have?

“An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.”

 Dr. Thomas Fuller  (1608-1661); Clergyman, Writer

Determination is the dedication to purpose, will, or intention. Thomas Edison made 10,000 attempts to make a functional light bulb. Though many considered his persistence ludicrous, if he had quit after the 10,000^th endeavor, we would be living in a different world today. 

While Edison possessed invincible determination, he did not

Are You Really a Great Listener?

What Makes Great Listeners?

In a Harvard Business Review article, Ram Charan wrote a piece called The Discipline of Listening. In the article, he provided effective techniques to ensure good listening and emphasized the cost of being unaware. What he left out though, was the source of poor listening.

We are taught to make eye contact with the person speaking to us. We are even taught to lean towards the speaker to assure them we are listening. Nonetheless, when there are two people in a conversation, there are at least

Quote From the Budda On How We Create the World

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world." – Buddha

If who we are reflects what we think, what influences our thoughts? If our environment shapes what we think and what we call reality, we are a product of our thoughts that were shaped by that environment. Therefore, if we were raised in a different environment, we would not be the same people today.

If that’s true, people have very little to do with how they think and who they are. Thus, the limitations in each person’s life are directly related to the environment in which he/she developed.

Nonetheless, these restrictions are not

What Separates Great Decision Makers From Poor Ones?

How To Become a More Effective Decision Maker

In today’s competitive job market, you need to distinguish yourself from others. When you add the information overload from the Internet, effective decision-making becomes a huge asset to your list of competencies.

Whether you are a corporate executive, an entrepreneur, or an employee, the ability to make great decisions will make you stand out as a valuable resource. When many businesses have the option to outsource, it becomes important to realize that you are always competing for your job with people around the world. Outsourcing however, cannot replace leaders, innovators, and effective decision makers.

There are many ways to make better decisions, this article will focus on four. The first is to become an

Quote: Thomas Fuller, M.D. on Wisdom

“Wisdom rises upon the ruins of folly.” – Thomas Fuller, M.D.

Folly is defined as thoughtlessness, recklessness, thoughtless, or reckless behavior. It is also synonymous with foolishness. Wisdom, however, is less about recklessness and more about clarity of what we really want from life.

Without understanding that, there are no

What The World Needs Now...

Dionne Warwick said “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” For sure, we could never have enough of that. Perhaps that is what we need first. However, without responsibility, we could have the 1960s again. In that era, there was lots of loving without responsibility. Thus, what the world needs now is a new relationship to responsibility.

To help people better understand responsibility, I have outlined possibilities for a world from my perspective. It is a perspective that is neither right nor wrong. It is a world where we are responsible for what we think, say, and how we engage one another.

What the world needs now is a

What We Learn Can Create Disorder

1895-1986

"When we stop learning and merely act from the knowledge we have accumulated, disorder comes." -- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Since we never stop learning, we can choose to learn from the new or the old. We often draw from past experience to ascertain occurrences in the present. In no way is it wrong. At the same time, it has limits and we should not be restricted to using the past to understand the future. If we do, it is a sure way to repeat the past.

From the quote, the disorder that ensues is a result of doing

Make It Up From Nothing

When I say make it up from nothing, I do not mean to do things in a willy-nilly sort of way. To what I am referring is a state of mind or a place to think from. In fact, I am asserting that there is a good chance that most inventions that have had a profound impact on civilization have been created from nothing. The thought is that if you have nothing, you can create anything. If you have something, you will use what you have as a starting point. You will then be constrained by what you have. The challenge is getting to nothing. 

To get to nothing, I am suggesting that you have to think nothing. That means

Margaret Wheatley On Creativity

“The things we fear most in organizations—fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances—are the primary source of creativity.” — Margaret J. Wheatley

From her quote, Margaret Wheatley understood abstract thinking. For the fluctuations, disturbances and imbalances induce ingenuity.

According to Wheatley, creativity will come from the very challenges