I just returned from 2 weeks of family vacation in Italy.
 
For the first time since the advent of mobile phones, I made the conscious decision to unplug 100%.  No Internet, no cell phone, no television, no newspapers, and no business periodicals. I took 3 books: two off-beat Italian books, and one I love called “Right [...]

I get a lot of calls and e-mails.  Every once in a while, they seem to “trend together”.  When that happens, and a certain topic pops up more prevalently, I feel the need to address it.
There are a bunch of frustrated CLOs, HR managers, corporate trainers and managers in the trenches right now with a little bit [...]

     Time management, change management, personnel management, project management, resource management, information management, business management, process management, risk management, chaos management……We talk about these things ad infinitum and ad nauseum.
 
For instance, time: It continues with or without our supervision or permission. It will not be managed in any way, shape, or form. Can you slow time or [...]

Does your workplace feel or appear less professional these days? 
Here are six steps to help your team ”polish up” their presence:
1. Join Toastmasters.
Very affordable (about $75 per year) Toastmasters is a great place to practice your speaking and presentation skills in a safe and encouraging environment. It helps with your grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, you name it. Almost every community [...]

The new academic year is upon us. When school starts I always think of my friend Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, who devoted his life to getting adults to keep reading. Being a perpetual student of life myself, I promised to carry his torch after he was gone from this earth.  Soon after Charlie went to Heaven, my mentor Jim Rohn died, the [...]

Voice: “Knock Knock”.
Leader: “Who’s there?”
Voice: “Anxiety.”
Leader: “Oh, hi again.  Who sent you?”
Anxiety: “You called me”
Leader: “I did?”
Anxiety: “Yes”
Leader: “Oh, sorry.  I didn’t mean to.  I must have dialed the wrong number.  You are welcome to come in but only for a second.  You can’t stay.  I have priorities that are important to me”.
Anxiety: “You mean [...]

The most powerful learning experience in my past was during intensive outpatient recovery for my alcoholism.  At the age of 43, I was in the late, chronic stages of alcoholism, slipping quickly into a time when my only option would have been institutionalization.  There are many excuses I can make for why I ended up [...]

A Primer on Loss and Grief for Leaders
If you are running a company of any size, you hear about some relative or friend of your workforce dying almost every day. In even the smallest company, there is loss all around your employees. Loss you don’t see, and I am about to make you aware of. [...]

  This morning at our weekly MAC Toastmasters Meeting I was asked to give a short recap of my Saturday breakout session “Pumping Mental Iron”. One of the things I didn’t get to do on Saturday, since my time was shortened (read my last blog post) from 50 minutes to about 35-40 minutes, was to do [...]

The best book on branding I’ve read is “What is Branding?” by Matthew Healey. I recommend it be your reference book on branding.  Every graphic designer, product designer, artist, and business person should have a copy of this book and look through it regularly.
Branding is more than a logo, more than design, more than….listen to [...]