I posted the other day Bill Gates and environmental leadership on how he is undermining his own attempts at leadership in the environment that anyone would see as blatant if he acted similarly around the pandemic. We excuse his pollution and overconsuming because we want what he gets for them, like travel and mansions. A friend quoted a relevant passage from his book. I’ll post my thoughts on reading the[…] Keep reading →

Did you see Bill Gates’s TED talk on pandemics from 2015, years before Covid? He foretold what scientists had predicted for decades and we came to see unfold around us. From the pandemic’s start, he spoke on the news on the importance of wearing a mask. Imagine if after speaking about masks, he held a party for hundreds of people in close quarters, none of them wearing a mask. From[…] Keep reading →

I’m not going to say I improved on the guy who led the Normandy invasion, led Columbia University as its president, or led the United States as its President, but I did accidentally improve on a quote of his. For years I’ve described part of the leadership I teach by quoting Eisenhower as having described leadership as getting the other guy to do your thing for his reason. He lived[…] Keep reading →

I posted on handling what people call pandemic fatigue to Thrive Global today: Pandemic Fatigue? How to Achieve Pandemic Thriving. Here’s the text of the article: When I learned I would be locked down indefinitely, knowing we were all heading into unknown territory, I looked for role models. Who had handled such a situation successfully? Nelson Mandela had been locked down for twenty-seven years, most of that time on a[…] Keep reading →

Brunchwork’s “The 11 Best Leadership Books You Should Read This Year” named Leadership Step by Step along with favorites including, 1. Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard 3. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey 6. 5 Levels of Leadership by John C. Maxwell 7. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie 9. Leading with[…] Keep reading →

Where Is the World Going, Mr. Stiglitz? I saw a dvd at the library called Where Is the World Going To, Mr. Stiglitz and recognized the name and face of, Joseph Stiglitz, honoree of the economics Nobel and professor at Columbia Business School, where I got my MBA and friends took his course so I felt connected. Libraries lend for free, so I borrowed it, not knowing what to expect.[…] Keep reading →

I forget if I wrote about this problem before, but I keep hearing old people acting like they’re praising young people: “I’m so glad young people are organizing. They’ll fix all the problems we created.” Despicable abdication of responsibility. They could lead or at least speak honestly about declining to act on problems they mostly created. I’ll translate what they’re saying in to plain language: “Not me, not now. Someone[…] Keep reading →