Tether Your Camel
There’s a Sufi story that goes something like this: A master was traveling with one of his disciples. The disciple was in charge of taking care of the camel. Late one night, they came upon a caravan of other travelers and camels. It was the disciple’s duty to tether the camel, but he was tired [Read More...]
The Future is Now
I sat with a group of colleagues last week and we spent a couple of hours exploring our thinking about global trends over the next five years as well as how the world of executive coaching will be different five years from now. Both conversations were rich, and like all generative dialogues, the thinking was [Read More...]
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Lessons from Geese
I was hiking recently in the Santa Monica Mountains and was spellbound watching a hawk circle, soar, scan the ground below for its next meal and disappear behind a distant ridge. Many of us have looked at the magic of birds in flight and wished that we too could spread our wings and scoot around [Read More...]
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Beyond Splat
A man meets a guru in the road. The man asks the guru, “Which way is success?” The bearded sage does not speak but points to a place off in the distance. The man, thrilled by the prospect of quick and easy success, rushes off in the direction the sage has indicated. Suddenly, there comes [Read More...]
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Your Baby is Ugly! Giving Better Feedback
“In judging others, folks will work overtime for no pay.” Sad but true! Most of us are pretty good at sitting in judgment of behavior that we don’t like and don’t understand. But constructive criticism—the more refined and productive brand of critical feedback – is an art few of us have mastered. Instead, our canvases [Read More...]
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Pizza, Perfection and Good Enough
My husband and I had dinner at our friend Jeff’s house the other night. He’s a talented engineer and wanted us to come and see the progress he’s made on the house he has reinvented and is rebuilding. The house is looking great and he’s focus on detail is beautiful. But what I found most [Read More...]
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Prize Power: Breakthrough innovations for your company
I sat dumbfounded in an audience the other night as I listened to X Prize Founder and Chairman Peter Diamandas evangelize about the power of marrying compelling goals to significant dollar prizes to catalyze innovative solutions for big, thorny problems. The freshness and success of his approach to tackling some of the enormous challenges of [Read More...]
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Let Me Entertain You
What makes a presentation a compelling, edge of your seat, tell everyone you know what you just experienced event? Here’s a clue– it is definitely NOT data filled power point slides– those are particularly handy if you’re looking to induce sleep or give folks time to catch up on their emails. So many of my [Read More...]
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Truth To Power
Being the bearer of bad news is a cruddy job. You are unappreciated, no one really wants to hear your perspective when they are certain all is proceeding well, and somehow you end up being the bad guy. And then, when your information or perspective is proven correct, when something that has been important [Read More...]
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Digging For Worms
I have been re-reading Jim Collins’ wonderful book Good To Great about what enables some companies to consistently outperform their competitors and develop into great organizations. He’s got a number of compelling insights into leadership and strategy—I heartily recommend the book, but I was particularly taken with the chapter on confronting hard, unpleasant truths. It [Read More...]
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