Leander Kahney, editor and publisher of Cult of Mac and author of the New York Times bestseller Inside Steve’s Brain, provides a fascinating interview about Steve Jobs from John Sculley, former CEO of Apple. It’s amazingly frank; among other things, Sculley suggests it was a “big mistake” to hire him to run the company when…
Once I thought I was wrong but I was mistaken. It’s a classic expression which is both a play on words and recognition that it’s very hard for us to admit we’ve made a mistake. Kathryn Schulz, author of “Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error,” claims you can’t just admit your mistakes but…
We glorify leadership and encourage everyone to be leaders. There are hundreds of books on leadership, a plethora of expensive leadership consultants, and even a pithy saying about being the lead dog in the sled. But we can’t all be leaders. After all, then there would be no one to follow the leaders. And without…
This weekend’s Wall Street Journal contained an article by former Chrysler and General Motors executive Bob Lutz called “Life Lessons from a Car Guy.” Lutz believes that different kinds of organizations require different kinds of leaders. A loosely-connected conglomerate like General Electric requires a leader with vision and portfolio management skills; investing/divesting lines of business,…
In a world swamped with social media, you would think that we have all learned to be brief. A never-ending parade of 50 slide ppt decks, run-on emails, and hour-plus meetings reminds me that we haven’t. It’s hard to get to the point. If you’re guilty of long emails or verbose marketing copy, remember the…
Most of us view work as a kind of economic transaction: people exchange labor for financial compensation. Depending on the job, increased quantity of labor (number of hours) or increased quality of labor (bonus or promotion) results in increased compensation. However, there is an increasing amount of research that shows that we are motivated not…
Sometimes you have to think outside the camel. At a recent management offsite, I adopted the phrase “Think different, act different” as a rallying cry for the team. I was trying to emphasize the dangers of group think so I reminded them of the story of ten monkeys in the cage. I didn’t just want…
One of my most popular blogs is “The No Asshole Rule” which was inspired by a class I took from Professor Robert Sutton. Sutton encourages companies to get rid of workplace assholes who deliberately make co-workers feel bad about themselves and who are openly aggressive to others with less power. While there’s a detailed on-line…
How did I do with my tongue-in-cheek 2010 New Year’s resolutions? Here’s a report card: 10. Less BlackBerry reading; more blackberry eating Fail. I read more BlackBerry emails than I ate blackberries. 9. Avoid 2010 meaning that I traveled to 20 cities on 10 airlines Partial credit. 16 cities on 6 airlines. 8. Leverage twitter…
There is an old saying that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It’s a catchy phrase that might be true. Researchers have shown that power – even artificial power – causes people to change their behavior. Stanford Professor Deborah Gruenfeld describes, When people feel powerful, they stop trying to ‘control themselves.’ What we think…