Historian and WWII veteran Paul Fussell has the best definition I’ve seen: “Chickenshit refers to behavior that makes military life worse than it need be: petty harassment of the weak by the strong; open scrimmage for power and authority and prestige; sadism thinly disguised as necessary discipline; a constant ‘paying off of old scores’; and insistence on […]
Do you want a healthy, winning culture where people do what’s right even when no one is watching? Focus on morale. A lot of companies focus instead on mood – keeping people happy, all the time, at work. You see this with games, parties, happiness stickers, motivational posters, and the like. Like everyone, I enjoy […]
Woke-Faux-Ness is the tendency of leaders to spill ink about social justice, fairness, and respect but avoid putting these values into practice. Freelance writer Arwa Mahdawi inspired me with her recent article on “woke-washing.” The say-do gap can create cynicism and internal conflict, which heightens employee disengagement, presenteeism, and turnover. These silent revenue killers are among the highest […]
The Leadership Podcast, co-hosted by Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos, is my go-to resource for leadership discussions. They’ve got extraordinary episodes with some of the world’s most respected leaders. I was gratified when they asked me to discuss ways that leaders can deal with workplace bullying and help their subordinates be the best versions of […]
I was burning out being whom I thought everyone expected me to be. I tried to copy other leaders whom I respected because I did not believe that being me was good enough. The inauthenticity affected my relationships and my peace of mind. At work, I was good at being what I thought others wanted […]
Here’s what I’m reading about race in America. Peniel E. Joseph, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own The Economist, Tackling racism: The new ideology of race and what is wrong with it. […]
If you want to nail your next 100 days, you need to focus. Get command of your time, talent, and energy, so that you have predictable times every week to work ON your business. You can get so carried away meeting everyone else’s demands that you allow your priorities to gather dust. You spend your time […]
You would have to be an idiot not to take diversity and inclusion seriously. Study after study shows the economic power of diversity. A diverse, high-performing team is more productive, your leaders make better decisions, and you avoid the drama that makes for a toxic workplace. The return on investment is such a no-brainer that companies spend millions […]
Decide’s Latin origin means to kill off or to sever. To make a decision thus means to kill off the alternatives. Common decision-making errors result in you killing off the better alternatives – they are short cuts to expensive failure Here are two doozies. Confirmation bias happens when leaders place excessive weight on data that confirms […]
The Pioneer versus The Reconciler. Which one is better for America? Many of you have asked me for thoughts about the upcoming U.S. presidential election using our PROM leader archetypes: Pioneer, Reconciler, Operator, and Maverick. (Get your PROM servant leader archetype here) My articles are never partisan, and this one won’t be either. I’ll outline the healthy, average, […]
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