My client tomorrow for an installment of "Abraham Lincoln and the One-Armed Man" is undergoing extensive change. They are a medium-sized organization about to be merged into a substantially larger entity. Yes indeed, that's change. I re-read the Gettysburg Address in light of the overall issue of change. It's remarkable how germane the speech is to change. For one thing, Lincoln explains the … [Read more...]
July 28, 2011 by
July 28, 2011 by
I'm revising my module on Abraham Lincoln and the One-Armed Man for a client presentation tomorrow. It led me to this question for you--when do you think you have connected at the most core, basic, and fundamental level with your followers? Has that ever happened for you? If so, what accounts for it? If not, what do you think is necessary for it to occur? Lincoln made this connection with the … [Read more...]
July 27, 2011 by
Wow--this might be something worthwhile. A thought strikes me. How does the fast vs. vast time dynamic (see previous post) apply to your leadership? Answer--in big and real ways. Think for a minute about trying to launch a major new project, initiative, or strategy with your followers at work. How much of their reaction to it will be the result of fast vs. vast? Quite a bit, by my reckoning. In … [Read more...]
July 27, 2011 by
In your life time acts in two very strange, seemingly contradictory ways. On one hand, time is fast. You know what I mean--the years since some big event in your life pass more quickly than you ever expect. High school, college, wedding, birth of a child, and more, each of these rushes by so fast you can't believe it. But on the other hand, time is vast. By this I'm referring to all of the things … [Read more...]
July 26, 2011 by
The three key examples are Winston Churchill, A&P Stores, and Grumman Company. Each of them showed outstanding leadership in the late 1930s, a time of deepening economic crisis--after a previous economic crisis. All three examples will help you re-energize your personal leadership and will also give you specific takeaways to use with your followers and, just as importantly, with … [Read more...]
July 26, 2011 by
I'm pleased to announce my third Leadership Now Seminar. The topic is timely, unfortunately. The title is Economic Stagnation, Your Leadership, and the Lessons of the Late 1930s. I'm inviting you to explore the fascinating and highly useful leadership stories of Winston Churchill, A&P Grocery Stores, and Grumman Corporation in the late 1930s. Theirs was a time of economic decline--the 2nd dip … [Read more...]
July 21, 2011 by
Today I will be presenting at the downtown Indianapolis Kiwanis Club. The luncheon’s topic is Martin Luther King, Jr. My part of it will be one of my most popular subjects, the last full day of King’s life. I have entitled the talk with purposeful irony—“A Day of Meetings.” King participated in—endured, might be a better word—four different meetings on April 3, 1968. As far as he was concerned it … [Read more...]
July 8, 2011 by
· Do you have to be elderly, in your 80s in Adams’s case, to have this sort of reflection and perspective? Can a younger person reach the same conclusion? Personally, age may help but I don’t think it’s required. This sort of insight can come at any age, at any time. · Speaking of age, I’ve seen plenty of older people who were anything but cheerful in the same sense that Adams displays on March … [Read more...]
June 30, 2011 by
History can seem contradictory, a clash with itself. When it does, I urge you not to think that you’ve been tricked, conned, or hoodwinked. Look a little longer and you’ll likely find that two diametrically opposed facts can co-exist. A major health news event from yesterday will show the truth of my point. Avastin is a drug often used to treat women with breast cancer. As a mark of the drug’s … [Read more...]
June 28, 2011 by
I like to use the present to reflect on the past. A vastly under-used and under-appreciated approach to history is to speculate on how an event from your life and mine connects back to the past. Let's use US Air Flight 1549 to explain. As you know, it's one of my most popular modules and sessions. The fact that 155 people are aboard an airplane is unique to the 21st century and part of the 20th … [Read more...]
