When you’re the boss you’ve got lots of influence, but you don’t control much. You don’t control team members’ attitudes. You can’t motivate them. They motivate themselves. The fact is that you can’t “make” anything happen. In fact, all you can control is your own » Read More
Category: Leadership
Leadership: There is No Misbehavior
“Troublesome” “Willful” “Rambunctious” “Stubborn” Those are just a few of the words my first and second grade teachers used to describe me. Again and again, they asked my mother to come down to school to discuss my “misbehavior.” My mother never got a college » Read More
The Sneaker Principles
Before there was Nike there was Converse. And before there was Michael Jordan there was Chuck Taylor. I should have said, “way before” in both cases. Converse was already making a basketball shoe in 1917. That’s when a high school basketball player named Chuck Taylor started wearing them. By 1923 he was » Read More
Two Polanyi Principles for Better Leadership
Michael Polanyi did so many things so well that it’s difficult to classify him in a phrase or two. One of his roles was that of “philosopher of science,” which sounds quite grandiose. What has captivated me about Polanyi’s work is how helpful it is when you tether it to the everyday realities of » Read More
Boss’s Tip of the Week: Results count
In the hectic world where you work, it’s easy to get sidetracked and concentrate on things that don’t make much of a difference. Look at the end of your pipe. What’s coming out? At the end of every day ask yourself the following. Did we accomplish the mission today? Are my people in better shape now than » Read More