Michele Norris, host of NPR’s All Things Considered, addressed over 1,500 motivated leaders and supporters of the YWCA of the Hartford Region today at the Connecticut Convention Center. As the keynote speaker for the YWCA’s 15th annual In the Company of Women luncheon, Ms. Norris advised the people in the room to take their vitamin [read more]
In these days of overseas outsourcing and large layoffs, I start to wonder whether there’s any meaning in the old adage “Your People are Your Greatest Assets.” Perhaps we are replaceable by technology and people willing to work harder for less money. Here’s a motivating thought from one of my favorite thought-leaders Seth Godin, who [read more]
A lesson in crisis management We can all learn from Toyota’s current public relations disaster. It could happen to any one of our organizations. No one is immune from mistakes on a grand scale. Successfully managing through costly and publicly-visible problems requires leaders to have a particular skill set and mind set. It’s called crisis [read more]
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christine Harvey is on a mission: Transition into the civilian working world. I first met Chris Harvey at the 2009 Business Women’s Forum in Hartford, CT. It was hard not to notice her commanding presence and radiant energy. She is what I call a “motivated leader.” We have since networked together [read more]
Having the last word. It is often believed the he who has the last word, holds the power; the final bit of leverage in the dispute. Yet, it is often our last words that we regret the most deeply. The words of anger spoken to a loved one that become our last words due to [read more]
I am bothered by the June 2009 cover of Fast Company magazine. It features a glamour shot of business woman and Presidential Fellow of the MIT Media Lab, Ms. Neri Oxman. This very well could have been the cover for Cosmopolitan magazine. But it was the feature picture for a lead business story “The 100 [read more]
Accountability is the Key (need some help?) We are living in very challenging economic times and need to call upon every internal and external resource that we can to turn around this mess and start heading in a positive direction again. But sometimes the things that we should be able to do ourselves (like holding [read more]
One of the most important traits of leadership presence is your ability to be fully present. Many business leaders are constantly distracted by their technology and communication aids such as BlackBerry, cell phones, email – the very tools we acquire and use daily to help boost our productivity and leadership effectiveness. Are you addicted to [read more]
Remember the classic B-rated horror flick, Night of the Living Dead? Well, sometimes it feels like we are moving towards Workforce of the Living Dead. Most employees are doing their job, but with very little heart and soul; plenty of complaining, internal jockeying for position, and other non-productive activity. With average employee engagement levels are [read more]
I had an unpleasant experience recently with a large corporate entity – well actually, one person within the organization. It reminded me of how common it is for large companies to misuse their “buying power” and to treat their suppliers as “vendors” rather than people. In my 25 year career, I’ve been on both sides [read more]
