People are people. Obvious, right? But that statement has some profound implications for you. People have emotions and they bring them to work. People are unique, not interchangeable parts. People have relationships and knowledge. People have lives that overlap their time at work. People aren’t good at the things  »  Read More

Want to succeed as a leader? Pay attention to the people around you. Technical skill is important. So is strategy. But you can be the world’s greatest technical expert and have the biggest brain and still fail if you don’t pay attention to the people. In the end, that’s what it’s all about. People are Not  »  Read More

Leaders are readers. Reading helps you discover ideas to try and expand your mental models. In this post, I point you to reviews of recent business books. You’ll find pointers to reviews of Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray and What We Can Do About It, Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of  »  Read More

Everyone has questions, but some people don’t ask them. So, when one of your team members asks a question, assume that others have it, too. Take the time to answer and check for everyone’s understanding. This is only one of 347 tips in my ebook, Become a Better Boss One Tip at a Time. Just promoted from  »  Read More

Used car salesmen don’t have a good reputation. Jack Scheberies was a big exception. Friends told me that he and his brother, Jerry gave people the best deals on the most reliable used cars. I’d never heard of them, even though they were running the business their father started in 1942. Maybe it’s because they  »  Read More

There are, conservatively, 300 gazillion books published every year. No one has the time to list them, let alone read them or review them. That’s a problem because there’s a lot of value in many books you may not hear about because of the clutter.  “Short Takes” is my humble effort to cut through  »  Read More

Joan Crawford screamed, “No more wire hangers!” I’m screaming “No more ‘run faster’ goals!” “Run faster” goals are the ones where you decide to “increase sales” or even “increase sales by 51.25396 percent” and the only change is that  »  Read More

There’s nothing like grandchildren to get you reflecting on your life. This last weekend I was talking with a grandson about what it was like for me growing up. That conversation got me thinking about the many lessons I learned before I joined the Marines and left home. Here are five important lessons that I learned  »  Read More

There are, conservatively, 300 gazillion books published every year. No one has the time to list them, let alone read them or review them. That’s a problem because there’s a lot of value in many books you may not hear about because of the clutter.  “Short Takes” is my humble effort to cut through  »  Read More