In one of the more memorable scenes (of many) in the movie Jerry Maguire, Jerry stays up all night in a hotel room writing his “manifesto.” It’s all the things he thinks about business and taking care of customers that he thinks no one talks about. He titles his piece “The Things We Think But […]
The furor over the recent practice of some public and private companies requesting social media passwords of job applicants reached Capitol Hill this past week, as lawmakers questioned whether this violates Federal law. According to a New York Times article, Facebook has already said it violates their own policies related to the sharing of passwords. […]
A word is worth one coin; silence is worth two. – The Talmud Years ago, I had a colleague at work who planted his Jumbotron-sized computer monitor on his desk so it blocked his view of anyone sitting across from him. He might as well have taped a sign on the back of the monitor that […]
I read an interview with General Norman Schwarzkopf several years ago in which he was asked if he ever thought about defeat during a battle. He said that in the middle of a battle, there’s no time to think about defeat. You just keep thinking about different ways to win. Schwarzkopf’s observations apply directly to business. They […]
WHEN YOU ARE IN a leadership role, you are frequently in the position of giving other people critical feedback. And in criticism, as in comedy, timing is everything. When you’re giving constructive feedback (including positive feedback, although I’m focusing on constructive criticism below), try to give that feedback as soon as possible. Here’s why: The […]
Have you ever wanted to be a much better negotiator? To create more effective teams in your company? To communicate much more persuasively in your business and personal life? If you did possess the skills to do those things better, how would your life be better and richer? If you’re interested in how the smartest […]
THE BIOGRAPHIES OF well-known leaders prove something you may have always believed: If you want to know why an adult is the way they are, look at their childhood. That’s exactly what Mark Leibovitch did more than 10 years ago for a Washington Post profile of Steve Case, the reclusive, competitive genius who was then […]
WIP sports talk radio in Philadelphia this morning played what they said was a comment by Andy Reid, head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, in response to two recent firings of NFL head coaches. “It’s a rough business,” he replied. Really? Being a US soldier in Afghanistan is a rough business. Being a police officer […]
Stephen Covey says you lead people and manage processes. I agree with that. If you’re in a leadership position, the implications are you want to spend as little time managing processes as possible, because your most effective and high-leverage role is leading the ones who are supposed to be managing. Think of it this way: […]
I’m an efficiency nut. I love learning new ways of saving time, shaving time off existing methods and generally doing more with the time I have each day. A few great books I read recently on the subject are David Allen’s book Getting Things Done and Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneuers. Here […]
