I had a drink last week with a woman I’ve known for decades. I admire Ceile a lot and think she’s a pretty darn good leader. She’s also a fan of the movie “Office Space” and does a spot-on imitation of the scene where the “Bobs” (Slydell and Porter) recommend promoting Peter and challenge Lumbergh’s objection (Now we had a chance to meet this young man, and boy that’s just a straight shooter with upper management written all over him.). …
On Christmas day, a Nigerian named Uman Farouk Abdulmutallab failed in an attempt to blow up a jetliner flying from Amsterdam to Detroit. In the aftermath, it became clear that the $40 billion in security precautions put in place since 9/11 had failed. In response, the Department of Homeland Security decreed that all passengers on international flights would not be allowed to leave their seats during the last hour of the flight. It took about 48 hours before the “leaders” …
One of my favorite Vistage speakers is Michael Allosso; he spoke to my key group in 2008 and came back to Indy twice this month to address my CEO group and share Part Deux with my key group. Michael is an actor, director and 2007 Vistage Speaker of the Year; he’s presented to Vistage groups almost 600 times.
The goal of Michael’s talk is to make us better communicators; he maintains that the things an actor must do to be successful …
My wife, Kim and I saw the movie “Julie & Julia” on Saturday. We liked it better than most reviewers. And, I found an interesting lesson in the movie that I intend to share with my Vistage group members and coaching clients this month.
If you haven’t read the reviews, the movie follows the life of Julia Child in post-WWII Paris as she learns to cook French cuisine and co-authors “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” the best selling cookbook of …
I’ve mentioned Lee Thayer in each of my last four blogs and I’m keeping the string intact; this blog is all about what Dr. Thayer calls the “Five Drivers of Wimpy Behavior.” I pulled these thoughts from Chapter 7 of the new and revised edition of his book, Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing. You can’t be a leader if you act like a wimp; truth be told, I’ve displayed these behaviors from time to time and I’ve seen them in others …
Mitch Goozé spoke to my Vistage key group last Thursday. Mitch is a veteran speaker who has addressed Vistage groups more than 500 times. The title of his talk was “Effective Marketing: How to get it, or tell if you already have it.” The group gave Mitch very high scores on the take home value of his talk. One thing that resonated with every member was Mitch’s admonition that leaders should spend 25% of their time with three groups of …
One of the cable TV channels ran a James Bond marathon over the July 4 holiday weekend. After watching dribs and drabs of a few of them, I decided they highlight two worthwhile lessons for leaders.
There have been a total of 22 James Bond movies to date; all of them (except the comedy version of “Casino Royale” that starred Woody Allen, David Niven and Peter Sellers) follow similar scripts. In virtually every one, an incredibly wealth madman develops or steals …
Words from a column Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal on June 26 have stayed with me all week. Normally, I’m not a fan of Ms. Noonan’s columns, but she struck a chord with this one. In it, she told the story of a conversation Clare Boothe Luce had with John F. Kennedy in 1962. She told him, “A great man is one sentence.” She meant that the impact of some leaders can be summed up in just …
I had Mark Wiskup speak to my Vistage key group last fall. He did such a good job that I brought him back to speak to my CEO group earlier this month. The title of his presentation is “Stop Talking and Start Communicating.” Mark’s purpose is to give group members insight into dealing with under-performing employees. His thesis is simple: people under perform because they believe they can. To put it another way, people under perform when there are no …
I had coffee with a friend last week. He’s an executive coach and pretty darn good at asking thought provoking questions. He asked me, “What do your Vistage members need in this tough economy?” My first inclination was the glib reply, Duh, we need more sales! I knew his was a deeper question and took some time to reflect on my answer. I finally told him they needed courage.