It happens slowly over time, like the air seeping out of a tire. The hiss of the hum lulls you into a state of complacency. Before you know it, your most ambitious goals, once firmly within reach, are fading fast. Without realizing it, you’ve adopted and animated attitudes and actions that knocked you off track...Read More

How do I see myself? How do I see the world and my place in it? What is important to me? What makes me happy? These are the questions leaders are grappling in the wake of a pandemic and amidst an epidemic of burnout. The book, “The Courage to Be Disliked,” written by Fumitake Koga...Read More

Why It Pays To Lead With Character A book written in 2015, well before the world drastically changed, is even more relevant today.  In “Return on Character: The Real Reason Leaders and their Companies Win,” Fred Kiel, a renowned business consultant, revealed an undeniable and dramatic link between a CEO’s character and the company’s bottom-line....Read More

I had a client whose boss told him he wanted him to think more strategically. He was engrossed in the grindstone of managing the risk department, not giving much thought to what was next for the future of risk management. His remedy was to hide away for a couple of days and to re-emerge with a...Read More

The art of speaking up is a skill that a lot of executives struggle to master in ordinary times, let alone when everyone is trying to adapt to the cultural mores of videoconference calls. Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong group of people can carry heady consequences for executives. Fear of how others...Read More

Why do some leaders seem to possess a natural knack for putting people at ease in unsettling times? When everything is up in the air, leaders who excel in a crisis use compassion as a grounding force and guiding light. Compassionate leaders have high emotional intelligence and display a combination of empathy, integrity, forgiveness, kindness...Read More

This article was first published by HR Executive Online on April 10, 2013.  Mike Rice, the former men’s basketball coach for Rutgers University, has been plastered and chastised in the media for exhibiting abusive behavior toward his players that included homophobic slurs. After a fine and three-game suspension four months ago, he was fired when...Read More

Did you ever consider that listening can improve performance because ‘it is the front-end of decision-making’? Bernard Ferrari wrote in The McKinsey Quarterly that strong listening skills make a critical difference in the performance of senior executives.  Unfortunately, he writes too that few are able to cultivate these necessary skills.  Poor listening skills often ‘short-circuit...Read More

Many months ago I quoted IBM and McKinsey when I wrote about the influence personal behavior has on IT project success and direction.  Recalling those two quotes: According to an IBM study, only 40% of projects meet schedule, budget and quality goals.  Further, they found that the biggest barriers to success are people factors. McKinsey...Read More

I had the good fortune of hearing Daniel Goleman and Dan Siegel speak at a recent Institute of Coaching Professional Association conference in Boston.  Mr. Goleman popularized emotional intelligence for managers and Dan Siegel, MD, is a professor of psychiatry at UCLA’s School of Medicine.  Both of them talked about the brain, and I wanted...Read More