I just finished Mary Higgins Clark’s memoir. Hers is a name you see everywhere, books, TV movies and on the big screen. The memoir is a fast read, a fascinating peek into the world that shaped this master storyteller and some excellent insights on just plain living.
“When a child comes to you wanting to share something he or she has written of sketched, be generous with our praise. If it’s a written piece, don’t talk about the spelling or the penmanship; look for creativity and applaud it. The flame of inspiration needs to be encouraged. Put a glass around that …read more

When discussing or reading about leadership you hear a lot about EQ, AKA, emotional intelligence and SQ, AKA, social intelligence, but what do they really mean?
Emotional intelligence refers to self-knowledge or, in my words, knowing and understanding your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™).
Social intelligence refers to your knowledge and understanding of other people’s MAP.
To learn more, watch this interview with Daniel Goleman, prolific author and renowned psychologist. Start learning how to use emotional and social intelligence to improve your team’s performance as well as your own, both professionally and professionally.

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Image credit: nono …read more

I was sent an advance copy of The Pursuit of Something Better: How an Underdog Company Defied the Odds, Won Customers’ Hearts, and Grew its Employees into Better People and it’s a great read.
What do you do with a slightly-below-mediocre company that keeps its business going by staying in small markets where its dominance is assured by an almost total lack of competition; a company with little regard for its employees and less for the communities in which it operates?
You bring in a CEO who has a passionate belief that the interaction between customers and frontline associates has the greatest …read more

Today is about an author, by an author and ideas for you to tweak and author for your company.
Do you know who Ray Bradbury is? An icon in the science fiction world, writer of screenplays, and hater of the internet and lover of libraries. “When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last offers a new look at why companies with everything going for …read more

During a conversation about positional leadership Richard Barrett said, “Reminds me of a Seinfeld joke. He pointed to professional sports teams and asked about team loyalty. The players change, the coaches change, and sometimes even the stadium changes. So, the people are really loyal to the logos on the team uniforms, just a pile of laundry. Maybe positional leadership is just laundry leadership?”
I like that—laundry leadership. Great term.
So what’s available instead of laundry leadership, especially these days when so much of the laundry is dirty?
Why not organizational leadership? Leadership that percolates from every nook and cranny of the enterprise driving …read more

I was delighted when I was sent a free copy of Barack, Inc.: Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign to review. Not just because I voted for him, but because this is a book about how to sell change, major change, to strangers and in doing so turn them into a community of supporters.
That’s what Apple did with the iPod and that’s what every CEO recognizes as being of paramount importance.
In a post last summer I said, “You must constantly change MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™)—your own, your people’s and your culture’s.
But it’s not just about managing change; it’s about …read more

I am a reader of books; they are my true comfort food. Books are my greatest joy; they lift me up when I’m down; make me smile when I’m sad; enhance my joy when I’m happy and keep me company when I’m lonely. They teach me; introduce me to people I’ll never meet, visit countries I’ll never see and even worlds in other universes. Books make me rich—without them I’d be bankrupt. I love books.
“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.” –B. F. Skinner (Not texts, not email, not even blogs; but literature in all …read more

Another day, another leadership book. I sometimes wonder how far around the earth they would stretch if laid end to end. Most have viable lessons, useable by everyone, not just the person running the show.
Many of the attitudes, actions and lessons learned and offered are similar, but each seeks a teaching mechanism that will catch and hold your interest.
Not an easy task in a time of information abundance.
Chris Warner and Don Schmincke manage to do it in High Altitude Leadership.
It’s not that their leadership guidance is new, but the presentation is riveting.
I like it because it directly addresses MAP (mindset, …read more

No question, men and women think differently—at work, at home and in every other situation.
And for years the argument has raged as to which approach is better; which thinking clearer; which to follow.
When ignored, the differences are the basis for miscommunication and the resultant misunderstandings, dissatisfaction, frustration and anger.
In rare shows of common sense, some companies focus on understanding the differences, sharing the intelligence across their workforce and creating a stronger corporate culture that takes advantage of both sets of styles and skills. The result is more employee satisfaction, improved productivity, and better retention—all direct contributions to the bottom …read more

What a difference a year makes. Last year Wall Street Journal columnist Alan Murray wrote Revolt in the Boardroom: The New Rules of Power in Corporate America. (Excerpt) detailing the war between Boards, shareholders and CEOs.
He remembers the time when CEOs were all-powerful autocrats running top-down organizations under the auspices of Boards comprised friends and colleagues. The came the revolt and CEOs started being dumped right and left.
How large was the turnover tally last year and was it really that different from what it used to be?
Generally speaking, prior to the 1990s CEOs weren’t fired. During the Nineties Boards ousted …read more