The quote in the subject line is attributed to Frank Easterbrook, Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Easterbrook is a graduate of the University of Chicago School of Law and is a senior lecturer at the school. He’s one of the big thinkers affiliated with this university who contribute to its reputation as advocates for the power of the free market. This school of thought is widely known as the “Chicago School.” I’m …

David Hutton made an excellent presentation to my Vistage CEO group last week; it’s titled “Leadership at 12 O’clock High.”More than 250 Vistage groups have seen it. David uses cuts from the 1949 movie of the same name to examine the leadership styles of two of the film’s leading characters. One is Colonel Keith Davenport; the other is Brig. General Frank Savage, who replaces Col. Davenport as the commander of the 918th Bomb Group. Hutton’s presentation compares and contrasts the …

I attended my monthly Vistage chair group meeting late in August and the speaker, Bonnie Burns did a DISC profile of each of the chairs. This was the fourth time that I can remember being profiled using DISC. This one was consistent with the last and I think it’s a pretty accurate. I’m delighted to say that it profiles someone who’s wired to be an executive coach.

DISC is a four quadrant behavior model that profiles individuals based on these behavior …

Pat Murray is a big thinker. He makes his living consulting, coaching executives and speaking. He’s an expert on leadership and what makes an effective leader, and he’s equally competent discussing why some teams are effective and the wheels come off others.

Pat’s been a member of the TEC/Vistage family for over 30 years and he’s spoken to groups more than 1000 times. I’ve had Pat speak to my groups three times; my members call him a “quote machine” because of …

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 …

Jim Fusilli rocks. In addition to being a bestselling mystery novelist, he writes about rock ‘n roll, and has been the Wall Street Journal’s rock and pop critic since 1983.

Last Thursday, he wrote a column in the Journal titled “Woodstock’s Forgotten Man.” It was the story of Bert Sommer; Fusilli called him “the lost bard of Woodstock.” He performed on the first day of the festival; his 10 song set is considered by many to be the best show 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 …