I don’t even want to type the word. It’s that painful. Corruption. My on-line dictionary provides these three initial definitions: Moral perversion; depravity. Perversion of integrity. Corrupt or dishonest proceedings. Few words convey something so universally ugly and sad. Corruption lies at the heart of the worst problems in the world, from starvation to poverty…
Anger is a funny emotion. No, check that. It’s not funny. It’s angry. But it is often strange and hard to understand. That’s especially true when otherwise affable or thoughtful people become leaders and start to exhibit anger more and more frequently. Anger provokes the people being led to question what they thought they knew…
For almost two decades we (at Table Group) have been using the Five Dysfunctions of a Team model to help leaders increase the cohesiveness and effectiveness of their teams and achieve more. Now, the whole world is navigating the unique challenges of transitioning to virtual work. This week we sat down with members of our…
I am writing this note almost exactly one year, to the minute, since one of the most wonderful and powerful moments in my life. A year ago, I was in Maryland at a hotel located along one of the many bays in the region. After a client event, I had an extra day to write…
Anyone who knows me understands that among the books I’ve written, one of my favorites is The Truth About Employee Engagement. My affinity for this book is the simplicity and efficacy of its message: employees only need three things from their managers to love their work. Really. And if that doesn’t sound unbelievable enough, those…
The other day, I went into my office with two colleagues, gave each of them a section of The Wall Street Journal, and we spent the next 45 minutes reading whatever captured our interest. When we were finished, we discussed the various articles we found, from finance to marketing to strategy to international business. Much…
I recently came across a new book with a title that really caught my attention. Love Your Life, Not Theirs, written by a woman named Rachel Cruze. It addresses the idea that one of the primary reasons people take on so much debt in their lives is their tendency to compare themselves to others and…
One of the world’s most respected, best-known thinkers on corporate culture works out of an unassuming open-plan office over a hair salon in tony Lafayette, California, two traffic jams east of San Francisco. The location suits him, and his mission. Just close enough to keep the pulse of disruption in Silicon Valley, just far enough…
…Brace yourself for this. It’s not pretty. The pinnacle of a successful company, the quintessential activity that makes success possible, is a CEO’s weekly staff meeting. Yes. A staff meeting. Now, if you’ve read any of my books or essays, you know that I’ve talked about meetings before. So, you might be wondering, what’s changed?…
December 15, 2009 Fame. A few months ago, prompted by all the news about Michael Jackson’s troubled life and drug-related death and the similarities between him and Elvis Presley, I started to think about the dangers of fame. And when the travails of Jon and Kate (of the Plus Eight television show) became known, I sat down and…
October 8, 2009 Maybe it was just the kind of kid I was, but I’m guessing that most children are constantly reminded by adults to be more efficient. Maybe not exactly in those words. More likely it comes in the form of phrases like “don’t be late”, “use your time wisely”, “don’t waste money” or even “turn off…
June 4, 2009 When it comes to tapping into the competitive advantage of diversity, few companies succeed. Yesterday I was reminded why. Our firm was having a meeting to discuss important elements of our strategy and marketing efforts, when something really great happened—we got into an argument. Not a disagreement. A loud, contentious, uncomfortable and passionate argument. On…
May 25, 2009 Lest anyone think that the current graduation speaker controversy at the University of Notre Dame is merely a matter of partisan politics and media hype, it is worth a closer look. What is happening right now in South Bend, Ind., is not simply a critical moment of truth for a vaunted institution; it is also…
April 1, 2009 Sometimes when we’re in the midst of a major event or a crisis, we don’t notice big changes that are happening around us. And then, when things settle down and we get up off the floor, we look around and notice that some parts of life have fundamentally shifted. I think that is what’s going…
It seems like we’ve been preparing for this current recession for the past two or three years, constantly predicting it and staving it off as long as we could, all the while listening to the media tell us that it was just around the corner. And now that it is here—and it is here—we’re witnessing…
August 1, 2008 As is so often the case, the most important and powerful aspects of life are the simplest. And often we overlook the simple in the pursuit of the complex and the novel. Such is certainly the case when it comes to the power of quiet, focused contemplation—or pondering. Someone once told me about an executive…
