The reason we on the Distinguished Leaders Committee of Columbia Business School’s alumni club booked a director for this evening’s talk was something one of last year’s speakers, Rita McGrath, said. If you’re near New York City, I recommend you come (click here for details of location and how to sign up, you don’t have to have graduated from Columbia to join). She pointed out that as people work at[…] Keep reading →

I will be presenting Golden Lion Cannes Award-winning Director Corydon Wagner February 27, 6-8pm. As a successful entrepreneur who leads projects with billions of dollars at play, he will present what business leaders can learn from directing and producing film. Sign up here. Below is the announcement text with a link to Wagner’s page. Business today forces leaders to form and lead teams under difficult conditions, even where few team[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on people who succeed despite adversity. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Continuing my series on people who succeeded adversity, I’ll start with deaf football player in today’s Superbowl, as shown in these two videos. and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQvB7FMkIWg Person Achievement Adversity Derrick Coleman[…] Keep reading →

Fable The mountain and the squirrel Had a quarrel; And the former called the latter “Little Prig.” Bun replied, “You are doubtless very big; But all sorts of things and weather Must be taken in together, To make up a year And a sphere. And I think it no disgrace To occupy my place. If I’m not as large as you, You are not so small as I, And not[…] Keep reading →

Martha Graham’s words on discipline, conformity, and freedom influenced me enough that I quoted her in several posts. She quotes T. S. Eliot describing “complete simplicity (costing not less than everything).” Two of my posts on her are “A master speaks on creative expression” and “A model on the foundation of personal freedom.” I had to look up the T. S. Eliot reference, so, in case you would too, I’ll[…] Keep reading →

Many people make the mistake of thinking that some things they think are beliefs and others are not beliefs but facts. Or that they are just right. For example, if you ask them who they think might be the next President, they might say it could be Hillary Clinton. They’d say that was a belief because they can’t prAove who will become the next President. They just have to wait[…] Keep reading →

I read a story with a lesson for anyone who creates anything too helpful not to copy. As much as I didn’t want to copy something you can find elsewhere, I couldn’t stop myself. I hadn’t read it before so I hope it’s new to you. It’s from a book called Art and Fear on creating art, but you’ll find it useful for creating anything — products, beliefs, rules to[…] Keep reading →

Pick any great historical figure. We often regard them as unparalleled geniuses the likes of which we may never see again. On the other hand, they were human beings like us. They performed in some areas well beyond average. What if their abilities or traits weren’t once ever but once in a generation? It’s interesting to see what you conclude, as I’ll show. Then we’d expect to see others of[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written before about the television show Inside the Actors Studio and how much the young field of leadership training could stand to learn from the longstanding field of acting training. Below is an interview of the host of Inside the Actors Studio, James Lipton, describing the transformation acting training went through with Constantine Stanislavsky. Leadership training stands to benefit from similar changes, and that field inspires me to help[…] Keep reading →