The benefits of having a mentor are well known and well documented, ranging from increased self-confidence to more promotions and higher pay. This is especially true when mentorship turns into sponsorship. But what about the benefits of an anti-mentor? A strong mentor provides guidance and advice to a less experienced and usually younger person, often…
If you are associated with marketing and advertising, you should read The Unpublished David Ogilvy. Actually, read it even if you aren’t. David Ogilvy is widely-considered the father of advertising. He founded advertising, marketing, and PR agency Ogilvy & Mather in 1948, and his legendary campaigns include Dove, Guinness, Hathaway, and Rolls Royce, Schweppes. In…
On a recent transatlantic flight, I watched the movie Forever Strong which was “inspired by” incidents surrounding the Highland Rugby team in Salt Lake City, Utah. While the movie gets mixed reviews, I was intrigued enough by the story of Larry Gelwix, Highland’s head coach, that I decided to do a bit of research into…
Seven years ago (!) I wrote a blog titled Management by Marching Around which suggested that traditional command and control leadership no longer worked in business – or in the military. Instead, I believe in management by influence (suggesting direction) more than by control (enforcing rules). I also recommend management by exception (tell me about…
Unlocking human potential. It’s a manager’s most important task, but also the hardest to measure and understand. How can leaders empower employees to be free of bureaucracy and top-down management, while maintaining consistency and efficiency across the organization? Gary Hamel, co-founder of the Management Innovation eXchange (MIX), and I discussed these issues and others during…
A few weeks ago, I had a chance to hear NFL Head Coach Dick Vermeil talk about his seven common sense leadership principles. In case you don’t know who he is, Coach Vermeil is eminently qualified to speak about leadership. Vermeil was named Coach of the Year on four different levels: High School, Junior College,…
In collaboration with author Gary Hamel and the Management Innovation Exchange (The MIX), SAP launched a crowd-source initiative which poses the question: What is the one thing you’d change to help organizations unleash and organize human potential across boundaries? As I was researching my own answer around the notion of “empathy in business”, I found a Washington Post article titled: A New Model…
What was the first fast food company?What was the first credit card company? Most people probably don’t know the correct answers are White Castle and Diners’ Club. While both companies still exist, they now have relatively small share in what has turned out to be very large markets. As I’ve previously argued, the benefits of first mover…
If I was a millennial, I would be annoyed with popular media. Whether they are called Millennials, Digital Natives, or Generation Y, people under the age of 30 are typically portrayed as having unrealistically high expectations for their career and over-inflated sense of their abilities. They are lazy, lack emotional intelligence, and don’t take criticism well. But they…
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…