The knee-jerk response to cost-reduction pressures in an economic downturn is turn up the heat to wring greater productivity out of your work force. This is not your best option, and will hurt more than help. A smarter approach is to get more out of your people by tapping into what people really care about, Read More
Tom has graciously given his time to visit my Wharton classes for many years. Students absolutely rave about his sessions, many asserting that it’s the very best class in the entire first year MBA program. I like to think of him as the Bono of Leadership. He is one of the most thoughtful and inspiring speakers on the subject of leadership that I have ever heard, and I’ve never seen him hit a bad note. Read More
Joel DeLuca, the noted author and lecturer on leadership and organizational behavior, passed away a couple of weeks ago, at 60. I am grateful for the chance to offer a few observations about the impact that he had on the world, and on me. I had the great fortune of meeting Joel, in the early Read More
For the past couple of years, I’ve had the good fortune of speaking at the Broad Advantage conference in New York. Part of Janet Hanson’s amazing organization, 85 Broads, this weeklong program offers an array of speakers and experiences for about 100 college women who are interested in business careers. A few days ago I Read More
I spoke about my book, Total Leadership, a couple of days ago at Silberline, a global supplier of effect pigments located near Allentown, PA. The top team, about forty in all, was present for a brief workshop on the main ideas and tools. In our session I had participants do a simple exercise from the Read More
With my sons and wife, I was among the teeming masses at the movies last night to view the most awaited film of the year, The Dark Knight. I promise not to give away the story here. I’ll just raise a few questions that might help us learn something about leadership and life from this Read More
Since the publication of my book a month ago, I’ve been speaking at companies and communities nationwide. There’s one refrain I hear over and over: “I can’t escape. Performance demands engulf continually. I feel like I’m permanently at work!” In my talks, I like to propose a small experiment that helps both to elucidate this Read More
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking in the Leading@Google series at the company’s storied Mountain view campus. It is a remarkable place. Yes, the food is amazing, and it’s everywhere (you are always within 100 feet of free, fantastic fare). Yes, the surfaces are ecologically sound and the use of Read More
The sporting world abounds this time of year, and I’m deep into it. The baseball season is underway and it’s the intoxicating time of NHL and NBA playoffs (in which my home teams, from Philadephia, are represented). Two days ago I was in New York, presenting to a group of 300 executives at ESPN’s Women’s Read More
In a recent Fortune interview, Google co-founder Larry Page discussed his company’s early days: “You have this fear of failing and of doing something new, which is very natural. In order to do stuff that matters, you need to overcome that.” When it comes to creating new ways of getting work done to improve performance Read More