The General has left the hardwood.
Robert Montgomery Knight, nicknamed the General not only for his stint as coach at Army, but also for the discipline and control he exacted at Indiana and Texas Tech, has abruptly resigned. Saying ...READ»
“I’ve got holes in my game.” That’s one of the first things Tiger Woods told the media after his first victory of the 2008 PGA season in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines. “If you’re not getting better, you’re ...READ»
Some time ago I listened to a national sales manager exhorting his sales team to take critical look at the appearance of facilities within their franchise network. While some facilities were in tip-top shape; others were sub-par. ...READ»
The first time he got the ball, he fumbled it and the other team scored. The third time he got the ball, he did the same and the team scored. It was running back Ryan Grant’s first playoff game and his two mistakes had put his ...READ»
“We change when it hurts too much not to change.” That statement is attributed to Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the author of many books on change and its effect on organizations. This sentiment certainly applied to ...READ»
We like him because he makes us feel good about ourselves. And we dislike her because she makes us feel inferior. That’s an assessment from political pundit, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, about why people like Barack Obama and dislike ...READ»
Dances with Wolves was a critical and box office success. It established creator and star, Kevin Costner, as an actor with exceptional talent as well as a gifted director. Costner was a bankable star before Dances with Wolves but had ...READ»
We are very good at advising others what to do. This is especially true for those of us in the human development community by which I mean anyone working in executive coaching and leadership development. Our profession by nature is ...READ»
Tens of millions of Baby Boomers will be retiring over the next decade. Organizations are working diligently to plan for their replacements as leaders as well as hiring new recruits to fill new positions that open up due to ...READ»
The need for executive coaching is booming.
One reason for the boom is the increased emphasis on succession planning. More and more senior leaders are looking for replacements, not simply for themselves but for key levels throughout ...READ»
The other day while watching the making of a short video comedy, I noticed how the director made time to get reaction shots from key members of the cast. Anyone who knows comedy knows that what is often funniest, particularly on ...READ»
Tremble.
You have a big presentation to make.
Tremble. Tremble.
You are not exactly sure of what you will say or how you will say it.
Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
You freeze up whenever you have to speak in public.
Don’t panic! ...READ»
“He doesn’t get people.” That’s how actor Steve Carell describes Michael Scott, the character he plays on The Office, NBC’s wicked comedy about work life. Scott is the boss who is woefully and pitifully out of tune with the ...READ»
Joe Torre turned down $5 million to coach the Yankees next year, $2.5 million less than he earned this year. True, there were incentives that could boost Torre’s pay by $3 million but for Torre that was too much. “I’ve been ...READ»
You want your employees engaged in their work? Absolutely! And because they are engaged your company will achieve its intended results? Not exactly!
“Intuitively most managers know that that it’s better to have engaged ...READ»
Two conversations got me thinking: do we know what we’re doing and why we do it?
One conversation was with a senior leader in large company; another was with a friend who runs his own business. Both are highly competent and ...READ»
Let’s say you are the manager of a department that includes one hundred people, including supervisors and employees. How many of those people would you suspect are loyal, that is planning on sticking with the company? 34! How many ...READ»
There was a time when I was growing up in the early Sixties when it seemed that every dad I knew had fought in “the War.” Viewed from the point of view of a child who squeezed in games of “war” between games of baseball and ...READ»
“We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission though.” Those words were thrown into poignant relief the other day when it became known that two of the men who penned those words were killed ...READ»
I was there. In section 12, row 67 for the biggest upset in collegiate football history. A Division 1-AA school, Appalachian State, beat the No. 5 ranked team, Michigan, in the nation. One for the ages certainly, but also one to ...READ»
The ability to relax! That’s what presidential historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, advises as a necessary attribute of presidential leadership. Kearns, who consults for NBC and was speaking on Tim Russert’s CNBC show, presented a ...READ»
Good friends make for good company, as well as a boost of energy. So it was with me the other day when friends of ours, Jerry and Mary, whom we had not seen in 17 years rolled into town. In moments the years peeled away and we caught ...READ»
How do you lead when you don’t know all the facts? That’s a question that Don Vandergriff and George Reed explore in a thought-provoking new article “Old Dogs and New Tricks: Setting the Tone for Adaptability,” published in ...READ»
Let’s say you’re the CEO of a company that just lost more than $12 billion dollars the preceding year. Your company is not expected to post an annual profit until 2009. So what do you do? Hide your head in the sand? Scream at ...READ»
The Babe had it easy, at least when it came to setting the all-time home run record. When he broke Roger Connor’s record of 139 homers in 1921, it caused barely a ripple of attention. Fifty-three years later, when Henry Aaron was ...READ»
