Dee Hock's Quote on How Leaders Lead

"Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers." — Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa

If you have ever read Dee Hock’s book One From Many, you would know that he was an amazing leader. His suggestion to spend 50% of your time leading yourself is valid. Why? At some point, most of us say and do things that are inimical to our success. Many poor decisions are derived from the inability to lead ones self and the desire to control others.

Managing yourself is not just making sure you align your thoughts and actions with your desires. You also have to constantly

How Do You Get Employees to Walk Through Fire for You?

Every manager’s dream is to lead people who will walk through fire for him or her. However, for many managers, this is not the case. Paradoxically, it is the manager who creates the dynamics of the relationship. Your people will follow your lead if you fight for them first.

As a manager gets to know his employees, he should first understand what they

Mario Andretti's Quote on High Performance

“If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” – Mario Andretti

According to Andretti, the thing many people crave impedes progress. In a world where we are obsessed with making everything predictable and controllable, we miss the possibility of

Do You Believe Being Smart Is Enough?

We have all seen very successful people who didn’t appear to be very bright. Yet, when the window of opportunity opened up, they knew what to do. What do these people have that extremely intelligent people lack?

I know a number of people who have very high IQs. In fact, I know a gentleman who was classified as a genius at the age of four. When you speak to him, you know in less than five minutes that he is super smart. However, he appears to lack

The New Economic Reality: Do We Have the Courage to Create It?

In the US, organizations have 2 gears for running a business. During good times, hire people. When the economy slows, fire people. In almost every case, this strategy results in a downward spiral for the economy. While there are infinite alternatives to this tactic, no one has taken sufficient time to explore and develop it. At the same time, in the 21^st Century, change happens faster than ever. As a result, many of the existing economic structures have become obsolete. Therefore, the time is now to explore new possibilities.

If you think about it, there has to be a

John Buchan's Quote On the Task of Leadership

"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there." — John Buchan

One of the biggest problems leaders or managers have is their impression of what kind of person you have to be as a leader. Too often, people have the false impression that leaders have to be

Peter Drucker Quotes on True Leadership

"Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people,’ that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." — Peter F. Drucker

More and more research shows that charismatic leaders do not run the most successful organizations. In Jim Collins’ book, Good To Great, he spent years following companies that consistently outperformed the S&P and their industry over the course of 15+ years. Of the very few that met the criteria,

Who Owns Your Brain?

The title may seem like a silly question. Most people will say they own their brain. However, before you respond, I ask you to consider something. This question is analogous to food companies. Coca Cola, for example, says they want to own 20% of your stomach. To do that, they produce soft drinks, snacks and other foods for you to consume. Their goal is to entice you to fill 20% of your stomach with their products. The remaining 80% is filled with Pillsbury, Kellogg, McDonalds, Perdue, etc.

While you may not like this idea, when you think about it, consumers are loyal to certain foods and a percentage of their stomach is committed to a specific brand. In some cases, people are enticed by too many brands and they fill their bellies to 200%. That is considered over eating.

So what has that to do with your brain? There are many

Jim Rohn Quotes On How to Make a Fortune

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn

While school is important, it is finite. Education, on the other hand, is infinite. Hence, that is the difference between making a living and making a fortune.

At some point, formal school

Why Change Initiatives Need Changed Approaches

http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2013/04/change-management-needs-to-cha.html

The Harvard Business Review published an article by Ron Ashkenas called Change Management Needs Change. See link above. He said while change management has been around for over half a century, 60%-70% of change initiatives fail.  

In the article, he sites one of the key obstacles to successful change initiatives is

Nikola Tesla's Quote On Great Achievement

“All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.”

― Nikola Tesla

This is a philosophy of the game changer. And Nikola Tesla was a game changer. In the late 1800s, he advocated and experimented with wireless technology.  However, the scientific community said he was

Are You a Game Changer?

It could be said that Michael Jordan changed the game of basketball. Steve Jobs changed the game of cell phones. There are many more examples of game changers, like the Wright Brothers or Thomas Edison.

In the case of the Wright Brothers, they pursued a goal in the face of being ridiculed by the masses. After many, many attempts they continued until successful. Once they achieved their goal, the

Small Businesses Are No Longer the Super Heroes of the US Economy

From Presidents of the US to guru consultants, we hear the chants. It has been repeated ad nauseam that small businesses are the most important enterprises for the US economy. However, when you look at research from the National Centre for the Middle Market at Ohio State University, you see a very different picture of reality.

Ohio State University did an analysis of mid sized companies in the US. They measured them by gross annual revenue between $10 million-$1 billion. They estimate there are 197,000 enterprises that meet this criterion. You may say so what.

Of those 197,000 businesses, they make up

NYSE CEO Duncan Niederaurer Delivers Keynote at The Board of Veteran CEOs Breakfast Forum

Do You Know Your Transferable Skills?

The skills and competencies to produce extraordinary results are rarely acquired. Why? Most of the explanations given for outstanding performers revolve around luck or genetics. Therefore, very few people have a way to impart a method for reproducing extraordinary. However, sometimes when people are faced with devastating odds against them, somehow they accomplish results that are considered miraculous.  You hear stories of people lifting a car off of their child.  Those abilities are inexplicable.  No one has been able to teach how to transfer those incredible talents that happen in a spur of the moment into professional or personal abilities. 

Throughout history, there have been instances where groups of people have taken on those abilities to avail themselves of great achievement.   Yet, when the emergency is over, it becomes

Steve Jobs' Quote on Dogma

“Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” – Steve Jobs

Despite controversy, Steve Jobs was a legend. And without question, he was a living example of what happens when you don’t get trapped by dogma. Contrary to corporate America requirements, he was CEO of a Fortune 100 company even though he only completed one semester of college. Instead, he went to India to find his guru.

His freedom of thinking was constantly illustrated throughout his career. Our lives will forever be influenced by his innovative ideas.

At the same time, do not confuse Mr. Jobs’ quote with

What Really Stands in the Way of Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling?

In a nation where it is stated ‘all men are created equal’, it would seem impossible to have glass ceilings. Yet, every year there are articles and workshops designed to help women and minorities breakthrough this insurmountable threshold. 

Since I would be considered a minority, I have a license to speak openly about this topic. Perhaps I have a

George Lucas’ philosophy on high achievement

“You can’t do it if you can’t imagine it.” – George Lucas

Before you have a conversation with yourself about why that quote is Pollyanna, ask yourself a question: what do you spend time imagining? If you imagine this quote is a lie, you will be right. From where you stand, it will be virtually impossible to convince you otherwise.

However, if you see this quote as a possibility, think about how much time you spend imagining what you are committed to achieving in your life. When I say committed, I am distinguishing between

Do You Think What You are Thinking Is Thinking?

In a society that craves instant results and fantastic quarterly earnings, taking action is more important than thinking. As long as you are doing something, the belief is there will be great results. This philosophy has become so pervasive that even the CEO is expected to function similarly. Except, without sufficient time to think clearly about outcomes, how will you know if you are moving in an optimal direction?

At some point, we have to stop, look and listen. While brainstorming with others is important, we need individual time to ponder. Otherwise, we may be on a rollercoaster that is headed for a brick wall. Yet, we keep saying ‘go faster’.

As the pace increases, we lose sight of

How Do You Handle Tough Conversations?

For those of us who aspire to be managers, we long for the glory days when projects are successfully completed. It is our way to demonstrate that we can produce results through others. At the same time, at some point, every manager will face the situation that may be uncomfortable. It can happen when our best employees don’t play well together. Or one of our direct reports is highly capable, however, unreliable.

On the surface, it seems the answer is to just fire people. Even that can become a tough conversation when you know your decision will significantly impact someone’s life.

When we explore why some people become managers, the complexity increases. Most people become managers because

How Did You Get Where You Are?

If we look at our lives, we each live in a world of our own. Our world consists of friends, family, work, recreation, etc. And that is where we are. The roadmap we used to arrive at our current destination can never be found in the places we frequent or with the people we know. It is figuratively found inside each of us.

We are the architects of the world in which we live. Our outer world is a reflection of

Andrew Carnegie quotes on the value of people

“Take away my people but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on factory floors. Take away my factories but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory.” Andrew Carnegie

With the proliferation of social media, many experts pontificate on the value of social networks. Yet, more than 100 years ago Andrew Carnegie became one of the wealthiest men in the nation by building the largest steel company in the world. From Carnegie’s perspective, his power and wealth was not

Three Pillars of Career Success

For many people, their career choices are the most important decisions in their life. Combine that with the fact that approximately 80% of our waking lives are dedicated to work. It is no wonder that career is taken so seriously. The remaining 20% of our lives is committed to family, friends, hobbies and play. Yet, we try to extract 80% of the enjoyment in our lives from the 20%.

In fact, we go to work with the belief that if

Three Ways Companies Lose Top Talent

In many cases, companies with the best talent wins. However, if you are unable to retain top talent, it may be difficult for your business to lead its industry. That makes retention of high performers a critical part of your organization’s strategy.

For those who believe top talent is not a factor, here are some clever ways they run their enterprises to lose high performers.

1. Restrict their creativity – In many cases, highly talented individuals are very creative. Their approach can be

Disruptive Thinking for the U.S. Educational System

Currently, the US educational system is run like a government entity. In reality, it resembles the services industry. In a business that provides services, there is a deliverable for the customer. In public schools, the customer is the student and teachers are the front line workers who provide the service.  If schools adopted business practices, they would ask the customer: what would you like? In business, when clients do not believe they received what they paid for, they take their dollars elsewhere. As taxpayers, we pay for a service from the school districts. Therefore, we should ask: what is the deliverable for our children?

The deliverable is