diy executive development

  • Leadership Lessons From MLK

    His Name Always Comes Up In my leadership classes, I always asked my students for the names of great leaders.  I’ve never had a class where Martin Luther King’s name didn’t come up.  This week is the 44th anniversary of… Continue reading

  • It’s the End of First Quarter. How Are Your Resolutions?

    Most of Us Make Resolutions The website, The Statistical Brain, says that 45% of us make New Year’s Resolutions and 8% of us succeed with them.  Thirty nine percent of folks in their twenties succeed, compared to fourteen percent of… Continue reading

  • My Generation Is Best, The Other . . . Not So Much

    That OTHER Generation is IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!! One of my favorite team building exercises is to put people of the same generation together and have them describe the other generations.  I have them make a list of the characteristics of the other… Continue reading

  • So you want to start your own business . . .

    Get Ready! I talk to a lot of people whose life goal is to start their own business.  For most of them, it’s a “some day . . . ” kind of dream.  You can’t start too soon. There are… Continue reading

  • I Hate My Boss!

    Unless you’re independently wealthy, you probably have to figure out how to deal with a boss you hate–at least for a while.  Pretty much everyone has this problem at some point in their career.  The good news is that you… Continue reading

  • What If . . .?

    You’re 18 and Can Do It All Again What if when you were 18 years old, you were given a list of all the major things that you would accomplish between the age of 18 and your age now.  All… Continue reading

  • Which Comes First, Success or Happiness?

    One of my favorite coaching clients recently told me a story.  She said that her brother went into a florist and while checking out, spotted a framed Master’s or Doctorate diploma in Engineering on the wall. He asked the store… Continue reading

  • Rot at the Top

    Is All Corporate Leadership Rotten? When I taught leadership, I always discussed Manfred Kets de Vries’ (see his book, The Leadership Mystique)  theory that  when organizations go down the drain, it is usually because of rot that started at the… Continue reading

  • Genericize Yourself, Increase Your Options

    Broaden Your Opportunities For the first ten years of my career, I did product development and operations at an electronic publisher.  Before the Internet.  Explaining what I did was very hard.  (It would be a lot easier now).   When I… Continue reading

  • Are All Organizations This Crazy?

    People frequently ask me, “Are all organizations like this?”  This political?  This crazy? Yes and no.  All organizations are functional and dysfunctional in their own ways.  Like families.  Even the very best organizations rub some people the wrong way. Organizations… Continue reading