From the category archives:
Last night, during game six of the World Series, Cardinal player Matt Holliday made an error that would have embarrassed a high school player—he dropped an easy fly ball to left field. As he and Rafael Furcal collided, the game looked more like a Three Stooges episode than a competition involving world-class athletes. Why? Two [...]
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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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Last week I spent a day at the Air Force Academy as part of the National Security Forum’s annual reunion. From the time our group entered the academy grounds until we left, we saw evidence of the cadet honor code: “We will not lie, cheat, or steal nor tolerate among us anyone who does.” This is [...]
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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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The resignation of Steve Jobs from Apple marks a sad milestone for both technology and leadership excellence. In recent years, no other enterprise leader has been so successful. Many consider him both a genius and a technology guru who had the temerity to ignore market research and push bold new products ahead of the market and [...]
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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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Just what we need: another Jane Fonda book. This time she supposedly explains how great life is after seventy with every manner of intimate detail about her romantic life. Who cares? She also takes this time to, once again, “apologize” for her behavior in Hanoi—well, sort of. She currently has a blog post entitled, “The [...]
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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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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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