At times, even the best run companies face critical situations at times

.  Having coached over twenty CEOs through recession, I’ve been up close and personal with both winners and losers.   There are lessons to be learned.Winners reinvent themselves faster than their competition. Ahead of the curve, they perpetually cull marginally performing;...

Entrepreneurs typically run into trouble after they get their new venture

launched.  The character traits and behavioral patterns required to focus an idea and bring it to market have nothing in common with what it takes to transform embryonic enterprise into sustainable business. As a coach to the CEOs of fortune companies, my first objective was...

Since 1900, many psychologists have contributed to the process of managing

  SigmundFreud (1856-1939), was one of the first to postulate the existence of an inner world, something he called ‘the  unconscious’, that drives what human beings do-something we hold today as obvious as gravity. He is considered the creator of ‘psycho-analysis’ and his concepts of Superego, Ego and Id led almost directly...

By any measure, “The Hunger Games” is a smash hit, breaking records

The movie defies categorization:  Survivor + Gladiator + 1984 + Coal Miner’s Daughter with a PG-13 rating.  There is more going on here than just a mash up of unlikely genres.  Like one of Katniss Everdeen’s high tech arrows, this story strikes at the heart of the millennial’s cherished values.  Here are just a few of the ways “Hunger Games...

We would not be here as a species if learning and change had not taken

Imagine a group of Neanderthals, sitting around their fire in the cave, when ‘Karg’, the most free-thinking of the hunters, using whatever grunts and motions he had available, speaks to his fellows. ‘You know, guys, we got the mastodon today, but I wonder how we could kill them without losing so many of us in the process?!’...

Experts are giving more credence to genetics and the gender gap.  Professional

opinion has finally caught up to what rational human beings have known since Adam took it in the ribs.  There are significant differences between men and women. Job performance is influenced—for example, women test stronger in pattern recognition, men appear stronger...

CEOs can secure corporate viability during growth by picking up the baton

Like jazz groups, successful small companies create a dedicated following because a limited number of players are in tune with the founder’s vision. They know their strengths and limitations, cover for each other, become experts at shooting from the hip, changing direction on the fly, and multi-tasking—in short, they are capable and prepared to...

Long range planning is at best a waste of time and at worst dangerous. 

 Visioning engages the wonder, creativity, and flexibility of the child that still resides within everybody—albeit buried under layer upon layer of “shoulds and how tos” (let’s call this dimension the pirate).  Pirates influence morale (good or bad) creativity (unharnessed creativity may be focused on how to; get out of having to produce,...

What was once nice to have, has become a survival issue.  Regular updates

 Futurist David Houle makes a compelling case that the world is literally shifting under our feet.  Effective brand managers are replacing their trust in knowledge and experience with processes for finding out and taking action faster than the competition—but the gap between finding out and the company taking action does not close fast enough when...

A common shortcoming of management is the inability or unwillingness to

A frequent mistake by well intentioned CEOs and HR directors is to have managers attend internal or external classroom training.  As the founder and former CEO of Achieve (now part of Achieve Global), I can attest that “just in case” training is a waste of time and money.  A system (such as the above) must be established.  A peak performance...