Leadership and Management Wisdom

Landing in the Fog

While Albert Hammonds was almost correct in his 1972 song, It Never Rains In Southern California, that doesn’t mean the sun is always shining. We call our own special brand of fog marine layer. It’s a dense layer of fog that rolls in off the ocean in Southern California, drawn in by the warm air over the […]

The Single Greatest Risk to Our Economy?

The 2012 election was about the economy. Much was said about the government’s role in supporting the context for job creation via tax, debt and trade policies. Most of the focus however, was on the role of large companies–whether they will ship jobs overseas or keep them here. Even less attention was paid to small […]

Seeing With Fresh Eyes

French novelist Marcel Proust wrote that, “The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.” To me, this sounds like the exact opposite of déjà vu. We all know that déjà vu feeling. It’s the distinct feeling that, even though we are in a completely unfamiliar place, somehow, we’ve […]

Stomping Grapes or Making Wine?

If you’re anywhere near my age, you’ll remember a very funny episode of the “I Love Lucy” show, where, en route to Rome by train, Lucy is spotted by a famous Italian cinema director and chosen to play a part in his new movie “Bitter Grapes.” Lucy sets out to immerse herself in the role. When […]

Four Rules for Building Powerful Teams

Last week, my business partner Moss Jackson and I finished up a leadership development program that we had created for a long-time client. The program brought together senior leaders from different business units and corporate functions within the company, who worked in small teams on a variety of challenges. All but one of the challenges […]

Why Are We in Such a Hurry to Make Up Our Minds??

Perhaps you’ve wondered: Why did banks and traders make such bad decisions leading up to and during the 2007-2008 financial crisis? Frank Portnoy [a former derivatives trader and current professor of law and finance at the University of San Diego] , was apparently wondering the same thing. In Professor Portnoy’s case, it led to the writing […]

“007” Style Succession Planning

[For the past several weeks I have focused my writing efforts on an upcoming book my business partner, Moss Jackson, and I are writing about Succession Planning and have been ignoring the blog. Erin Palmer, who works with Villanova University’s online human resources programs, and writes about project management including the PMP certification training training and business […]

Consequences and Accountability

One of my clients likes to talk about the importance of accountability. He believes that it is critical that the people who work for him feel a sense of accountability for the results of their efforts. I think he may be a bit confused when he talks this way about accountability, as if it arises […]

Strategic Business Analysis is Messy Business

A while back I asked my son-in-law, who works for Cisco in San Jose, what kind of job he would pick if he were able to choose from anything available at his company. He told me that he’d really like to work on business strategy, maybe performing strategic business analysis. Everyone who has been subjected […]

Sometimes BS Isn’t All Bad, Especially When Dealing with SMAPs

No, I’m not writing about bulls**t. I’m writing about an approach to problem solving that my friend and colleague, Alan Engelstad, has dubbed “Benevolent Skepticism.” [Hence the somewhat misleading “BS” tag in the title of this post. I hope it worked to get your attention.] SMAPs are Solutions-Masquerading-as-Problems, but more on that later. Benevolent skepticism […]