From the category archives:
Sometime in the past two years, perhaps while I was distracted by the vampire craze, zombies started presenting a more menacing presence. Scores of television programs, movies, and books have seemingly sprung from nowhere to teach us to survive a zombie attack. For example, Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, has dominated [...]
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Last year my friend, Debbie, was dating a man named Bill. As any smart boyfriend would do, he asked Debbie what she wanted for Christmas. She told him she’d like a new sweater and then showed him the kind of thing she had in mind. Bill mentioned that she could use a one-cup coffee maker [...]
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In 2005, one year after receiving a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, Steve Jobs told an audience: “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” The most productive chapter in Steve Jobs’s career occurred in the six years after that [...]
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Since referrals are the coinage of my realm, I recently asked an executive coaching client, Greg, the CFO of a large company, to refer me to another executive in his organization. Apparently it worked, because a week later one of the vice presidents set up a meeting with me. When I met the vice president, [...]
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Esteemed Irish colleague, Patrick Daly, shared this story on a website we both frequent: An economist, a chemist and a physicist are marooned on a desert island. Their only food is a can of beans, but they have no can opener. The physicist says, “Let’s try to focus the tropical sun onto the lid – [...]
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Davy Crockett, celebrated folk hero, soldier, politician, and” king of the wild frontier” was born 225 years ago today, August 17, 1786. During his fifty years on earth, he served in the militia of Tennessee, represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives, served in the Texas Revolution, and gave his life at the Battle [...]
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Yesterday The St. Louis Business Journal sponsored a program for CFOs to discuss the current decisions in Washington and their impact on individuals and businesses. To make his point, one of the panel members asked audience members to raise their hands if their companies had laid off workers during the recent economy. While those people [...]
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As the old joke goes, a reporter asked a business owner, “How many people work here?” “About half,” he responded. Recent research indicates that estimate might have been too ambitious for today’s companies because many leaders reported that only about 29% of their workfoce shows signs of strong engagement. What do the other two thirds do? [...]
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Recent research indicates that only about 38% of employees use all their allotted vacation time, and it’s not the boss’s fault. Only about 5% of those in the survey said it was. So why don’t people take the time off they’re entitled to? One word—fear. With recent cuts to the labor force, people have developed [...]
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Last week, on the heels of the Anthony Weiner story, the local Fox affiliate asked me to join the anchors to discuss why men in power behave badly. They flashed pictures of John Edwards, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and, as of yesterday, former Congressman Weiner. Initially the questions centered around things like “What were they thinking?” but [...]
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