The Practical Leader
The two teenage boys were students at Lakeside High School and members of the fledgling Lakeside Programmers Group. The group was granted free computer time on various machines in exchange for writing programs. At the time, 1970, city and county municipalities conducted traffic surveys by stretching a rubber hose across a highway that triggered a … Read morePersistence – the glue of success
Consistence: a harmonious uniformity or agreement among things or parts; the property of holding together and retaining its shape. At Google, twice a year they ask everyone who has a manager to evaluate that manager. The result is thousands of pieces of data and the understanding that the most respected managers were those most … Read moreConsistence – the glue that holds organizations together
Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, was born January 23, 1951 in Dennison, Texas, to a dentist father and an elementary school teacher mother. An exceptional student with a brilliant mind, he joined Mensa at the age of 12. After graduating from high school, he entered the US Air Force Academy. Already a competent pilot, he was … Read moreThe quality of confidence – lessons from Flight 1549
Tables were arranged in a shallow U-shape at the front of the room. It was the annual board meeting of a vintage automobile club whose members resided in almost every state. The year had not been a peaceful one when some actions taken by the board provoked considerable anger among many members. The annual meeting … Read moreInfluence – when you speak, who listens?
Leaders, especially superlative ones, are achievers. They get things done. They are typically hands-on, roll up the sleeves type of people who attack life and its opportunities head on. It is that sort of attitude that contributes to success, a tenacious, never say die pursuit of achievement. Typically they are labeled Type A, but I … Read more4 questions to ask when someone brings a problem to you or you can learn a lot from a monkey
If there is one competency that separates a leader from a manager, it is this one: the ability to maintain a forward focus and organize change to facilitate it. There are a thousand things that compete for our attention (well, maybe not a thousand but it can seem like it). And there are a thousand … Read moreForward focus – handling CAVE people
I am in Washington, DC, at the SCORE annual conference. SCORE is an organization of volunteers, all experienced business and non-profit leaders who volunteer their time to mentor others. There are 320 local chapters throughout the country in which about 11,000 men and women donate their time and experience to counsel aspiring business owners, startup … Read moreKeeping SCORE – 5 lessons from 300 mentors and 50 years
There I stood, 4 minutes power left on my laptop battery and I’m holding the plug ready to connect to an outlet. The problem? My laptop is American and I was standing in my quarters in Uganda. There was power at hand, the ability to complete my projects within reach and I could not make … Read moreAdaptability – two critical meanings for every leader
Playing almost his entire 19 year long career at the New York Yankees, Lawrence Peter Berra, whom we know as Yogi, has become a classic example of colorful management. On the field he was a catcher and an outfielder. Off the field his career as a manager has yielded some of baseball’s and American culture’s … Read moreCompetence #4 – Ambitious learning
Why would an economics teacher ask this question? My economics teacher asked each of us what we thought was the meaning of life. The answers were as varied as were those occupying desks. It seemed an odd question to me for the first class session of the course. I could have understood the question more … Read moreHow to recognize purpose for yourself