You are reading my two-thousandth blog post. Here’s the list of all of them. I’ve posted daily since January 2011, plus twice daily around my North Korea trips since that content seemed different. Why? I write for two main reasons, one related to content, the other to process. The content reason is that writing helps me develop thoughts and ideas. When I started I thought I’d run out of ideas.[…] Keep reading →

The more I work in American universities, the more I see their decision-making and leadership behind the scenes. The more I learn about student-focused project-based learning connecting students’ lives to what the schools are trying to teach and move away from more abstract academic approaches, the more I see alternatives to the education I got that I think serve students’ and society’s interests more. I care about students in schools[…] Keep reading →

If you’ve talked to me in the past few years, you’ve heard how watching Inside The Actors Studio inspired me to learn how actors came to excel so much at skills leaders in other areas of life work hard to achieve but rarely do. On top of that, many great actors on the show dropped out, were kicked out, or otherwise didn’t finish much school. Meanwhile, graduates of Ivy League[…] Keep reading →

Teams with members with diverse experience and skills outperform teams without diversity, as I understand research shows. My experience is consistent with that view. I am a huge fan of diversity, and, for that matter, equality. Many people promote having more women in areas where there are fewer—in leadership, in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), in college, and so on. Searching on the topic on the web shows plenty[…] Keep reading →

Nearly everyone I coach wants help handling someone difficult, usually a boss, someone who reports to them, or spouse. When I ask my client why the difficult person behaves how they do, they answer how everyone does: they tell me how the person annoys them. But describing their behavior doesn’t say why they do it. What they do is the result of their motivation. It’s like describing the noise a[…] Keep reading →

I heard yet another person saying “I don’t have time for negative people. I’m a positive person. I can’t let them bring me down.” Oh, how perfect they sound! High and mighty! He blithely and ironically didn’t notice the negative start to what he said, “I don’t have time for…” Sometimes they’ll outright say so-and-so is a negative person. People who talk about others being negative are judging others by[…] Keep reading →

After writing about bad boys, success, and discipline yesterday, you might ask, “What about Tiger Woods? Why was he pilloried? He is full of discipline. Why didn’t society accept of him something many successful athletes do?” I’m no expert on public relations, but I see two main issues. First, the lesser issue. He doesn’t have a bad boy reputation. His is clean cut and respectful, or looks that way to[…] Keep reading →

A friend wanted to develop expertise in a field by getting more degrees in school. As I wrote in “Programmers work with computers and leaders work with people,” people with functional skills can solve problems in that functional area: carpenters can solve problems with wood, plumbers can solve problems with pipes, and so on. Leaders can solve problems with people. Expertise is nice, but if you have leadership skills, you[…] Keep reading →

Want to learn and practice one of the most effective leadership techniques? Then join me for a workshop, Wednesday, September 30th at 6:30pm in midtown, and get a copy of the #1 bestselling leadership book included! From the announcement from the Columbia Business School Alumni Club (everyone is welcome): The Workshop Committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club invites you to a workshop on Marshall Goldsmith’s FEEDFORWARD hosted by[…] Keep reading →