Perspective is Key During these Surreal Times

“For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900, to parents or grandparents who fought in the civil war. On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits…

Read More

Do You Play on Drama Triangle: Victim? Hero? Villain? How to Get Off…

Are you in Karpman Drama Triangle? Read this short Wikipedia article to find out. “…[D]rama-based leaders can instill an organizational culture of drama. Persecutors are more likely to be in leadership positions and a persecutor culture goes hand in hand with cutthroat competition, fear, blaming, manipulation, high turnover and an increased risk of lawsuits. There are also victim…

Read More

Professional development requires your active participation

Leaders are Readers Do you subscribe to HBR (Harvard Business Review)?  If you don’t, you should. Deborah Rowland penned an article titled: Why Leadership Development Isn’t Developing Leaders, and it’s worth ten minutes of your time. The take away?  “Our primary method of developing leaders is antithetical to the TYPE of leadership that we need.” As a Vistage Chair, this…

Read More

Living and Leading in the Perpetual Discomfort Zone…

I love this quote from Francisco D’Souza, CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions: In business, the comfort zone has never been a good place to be. Companies that get too comfortable risk becoming irrelevant, obsolete—and extinct. This is particularly true in today’s business world where the forces of globalization; new social, mobile, analytical and cloud technologies; and fast-changing…

Read More

“Growth And Comfort Do Not Coexist”

That title is from Ginny Rometty, CEO of IBM. Pithy, huh? I relate… I’m a guy that breathes persistence. I don’t give up. I lock onto my intended purpose. I grow through wilful discomfort all the time. Painful. Embarrassing. And, for some reason–hard to admit. I wish things flowed easier. Still, I believe that my…

Read More

Genius is Purposeful. How Leaders Deliver Extraordinary Results…

Curious about an ongoing study of the mindsets of business leaders when delivering their most extraordinary results?  What is the mindset that shows up when CEOs are at their most effective? Of the eight mindsets identified, the “Purposeful” theme is exhibited by 82% of the leaders. This mindset is especially important to a sense of personal power and…

Read More

Seeking Real Leaders (CEOs) Desiring Brobdingnagian Awareness

Brobdingnagian is Vast, Huge, Big, Immense, Mammoth… The CEO superpower we all want in our arsenal? Mega self-awareness. Why? This is the basis for solid decision making. The best decisions rarely come from the CEO pondering in deep isolation. High-quality decisions and decision-making excellence happen when CEOs: …learn from and draw on the experiences of others. In…

Read More

CEO Snack: Value of Outside Peers…

Make sure to keep your energy up today. Here are a couple snacks to chew on: 9 Reach out for support. It’s lonely at the top and having a couple trusted advisors or peers outside your company who you can run things by will help you learn new tricks, see things from different perspectives and avoid costly…

Read More