Ramblings From a Glass Half Full
It was 1987, and I had just started my first big executive job at a Cable TV company in Los Angeles. At that stage of my career, I was hungry for guidance on what it took to be a great leader. As fate would have it, I was sitting in my boss’s office one morning, and …
“We live in a cynical world. A cynical world.” – Jerry Maguire There are lot of skeptics out there, especially in the workplace, and who can blame them? Over the course of a working life, how many times have we been let down by our leaders – for promises not kept, changes that are never made, money …
“They can’t see the scoreboard? What, ARE YOU KIDDING ME????” That was the bomb that nearly killed my career. The year was 1991, and I was working for a certain pro football team in Washington, as an executive overseeing the planning for a new football stadium. I came out to Washington the year before to take this …
Every business has a natural “pulse” of activity that is designed to match the human rhythm of the calendar. Savvy leaders know how to leverage this pulse to their best advantage by properly sequencing their analysis, interaction, thinking, discussing, deciding, and doing. For them, each day of the business week has an overarching theme, designed to …
Over the past year here in Portland I’ve been talking to a lot of startup leaders trying to make their fledgling businesses fly, and the image that always comes to my mind when I have these conversations is that of a race car traveling at 200 mph, and getting a tune up at the same …
Growing up in the 60′s and 70′s I was utterly fascinated by the US Space Program, and its corps of courageous astronauts. They were my childhood heroes, and I still vividly remember that night in July of 1969 when I ran outside moments after Neil Armstrong uttered that famous “one small step” line and stared …
Someone once asked me to use a single word to describe a “secret to leadership” – without hesitation, I replied, “Relentlessness” If there is one thing I learned in my nearly 25 years in the executive chair, it’s this: Leaders cannot achieve their grand visions and strategies without a relentless push to execute brilliantly. The best way to …
A few weeks ago at Portland State University’s Digital Media Conference, I was challenged to present “9 Ways Social Media Can Make You a Better Leader”, in the “Ignite” format (that’s 20 slides in 5 minutes, each one changing over every 15 seconds, whether you are ready for the change or not). It was a great …
Success is a beautiful thing. We all want it, because it’s the undisputed champion in measuring our professional selves. We know it’s hard to get, and that’s what makes it all the more satisfying. We cherish it, because we know what it’s like to fail (because we all do). So, when it happens, there’s the part of us that …
In September, at SOBCon NW in Portland, I sat down for an interview about Leadership with small biz guru and NY Times bestselling author Carol Roth. In the interview, Carol asked me: 1) What is Leadership? 2) How do you get everyone on the same page? 3) How do you tie individual values to a common business purpose? 4) …
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