Actor Bob Denver will always be remembered for his role as the clueless first mate Gilligan on the 1960’s sitcom Gilligan’s Island. And that’s about it. Denver acted in other television roles but generally spent the rest of his career being identified as for his role as Gilligan. Bob Denver was typecast. He was, in [...]
Leaders may well be a dying breed. Changing expectations and technology may herald the end of the role of leader as we know it. I’m talking about formal leaders. The one’s at the top of the bureaucratic hierarchy. The larger-than-life turnaround CEO leader. The charismatic leader who motivates a team to boldly go where they’ve [...]
I’ve been hearing a lot of references lately about the need to make “elevator pitches”. This refers to the opportunity to pitch the next great idea to your CEO while riding the elevator. From the time the doors close to when they open again, you’ve got a limited amount of time to make your case [...]
Nobody said that leadership was simple. It can, in fact, be an extremely complex and challenging pursuit. Some people are naturally drawn to leadership while others grow into the roles. Some believe that there are born leaders while others suggest that leadership is a choice and that we are all capable of leadership. Leaders are [...]
The days of the heroic leader are gone. For years, we have heard about the amazing leaders who have singlehandedly made sweeping changes to an organization. We have idolized the likes of the “turnaround CEO” who can swoop in and rebuild a money-losing organization into a world leader. People such as Rudy Giuliani in New [...]
My father once used the expression that “BS baffles brains”. It’s one of those little nuggets of wisdom that you come back to time and again. In leadership, I have seen many examples where intelligent people have become baffled by the BS. Sometimes we call it a “blind spot”. We know that a certain manager [...]
I’m fascinated by the suggestion from author/blogger Seth Godin that we need to see our work as art. Godin argues that average is over and the world needs more creative, innovative and engaged workers. In his book Linchpin, Godin writes, “The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job [...]
A number of years ago a colleague of mine came up with a label of obsequious sycophant to describe the slavish, unquestioning behaviour of some managers in our organization. I’m confident that you’ve encountered people like this. They are the ones who have a certain glazed over look to them as they go about implementing [...]
Some of the most frightening aircraft accidents are classified as CFIT: controlled flight into terrain. This is generally where the pilot flew the airplane into the side of a mountain or into the ground. In most cases, the pilot didn’t mean to point his airplane into the ground. But that’s where it ended up. In [...]
I quit making New Year’s resolutions years ago. That said, January is still a good time to think about the year ahead and, perhaps, make some changes that will help ensure that 2012 is a good year. One thing we could all resolve to do in 2012 is to speak the truth. Truth speaking is [...]