Blog

January 17 , 2012 /

Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way

Whether this was a bumper sticker or just intended as a catchy slogan, the message is fairly clear.  First of all, it does not ask a question.  It’s in the imperative voice and asks for a choice or a response.  You may or may not choose to lead.  You may or may not choose to

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December 29 , 2011 /

CHANGE

One of the more heralded studies of leadership in the past few years was the 2010 IBM survey and interviews conducted with 1500 CEO’s from 60 different countries representing 33 different industries.  In spite of the emphasis on the challenge of managing complexity and discovering the value of creativity and innovation, there remains the one

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December 19 , 2011 /

WINTER SOLSTICE – December 2011

According to various calculations, standards and clocks, Winter solstice in the northern hemisphere will occur this year at 5:30 AM on December 22, which is 10:30 PM December 21, Mountain Standard Time.  While it happens technically at a moment in time, the recognition and celebration may occur at any convenient time, or period of time,

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December 17 , 2011 /

REASONED, SEASONED GIVING

As I went through four days of mail, not email but real USPS mail, I became aware of the plethora of requests for a year end gift to support just about everything you could imagine.  The invitations to give ranged from Michelle Obama’s holiday card asking for a contribution to Barack’s campaign to a variety

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December 13 , 2011 /

The PSYCHE of Leadership

The common misunderstanding of psyche is because the word gets translated most often as mind, thus terms like “mind-set” and “mindful” are often applied to leadership.   Conventional wisdom is that leaders will be more successful if they think intelligently about solving problems, create innovative plans and programs, or new products and services, figure out how

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December 11 , 2011 /

The Conscious Decision to Lead

Deciding to be a leader requires a conscious commitment, and the courage and confidence to take it all on, to accept the mantle of an awesome responsibility for making decisions that affect the lives of others.  Experience along the way helps as does study, reflection and renewal.  Talking with others who are experienced leaders helps,

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December 6 , 2011 /

COSTS OF BEING A LEADER

One light year is a long time, the amount of time it takes light to travel for one year.  At 186,000 miles per second that would be 31,536,000 seconds which equals 525,600 minutes or 8760 hours.  Reports say the Kepler 22b planet is 600 million light years away.  Whether it’s 600 or 600 million makes

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December 5 , 2011 /

LEADING AND BEING AT HOME WITH ONE’S SELF

With gratitude to Peter Senge, who talks often about decentralizing the role of leadership in order to enhance the capacity of all people to work toward healthier human systems, I offer these observations, insights and experiences. As leaders, we are acutely aware of trying to meet the needs of multiple constituencies and I often refer

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December 4 , 2011 /

SYSTEM PREFERENCES

On my computer, I have some 33 choices under “System Preferences”, neatly organized into 5 categories and it all seems to work to serve my needs and support my work.  Cool beans!  However, I have run into another system which is certainly organized as part of a bureaucracy that is beyond belief.  Do we need

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