Before the age of five, we learn most of what we need to survive.  We

learned the essentials not by listening, but by watching what the adults in our life (the people who had  power over us) were doing.  Prior to developing our verbal skills, we didn’t understand what Mom and Dad were saying, but we discerned much from their tone, body language...

unsung but amoung the very bestExecutives who are not extroverts by nature

can learn much from Omar Bradley’s leadership style.  Unlike Generals Eisenhower and Patton, this leader has been relegated to  sidebar status in the annals of WWII. Jim DeFelice in his new book,  Omar Bradley: General at War  labels Bradley “the man who won WWII”.  ...

executive signalingCoaching the CEO’s of Fortune listed companies was

a component of major change initiatives facilitated by Achieve.  It involved the clarification of values, helping the client focus a vision of the preferred future, and promoting the benefits of process-discipline over personal-authority.  Getting CEO’s to support and participate...

In a past life I interacted with Tom Peters, of In Search of Excellence

fame, during an Achieve promotion.  He and co author Bob Waterman coined a phrase that stuck.  MBWA (management by wandering around), labeled a desirable behavior for senior executives—to get out of the corner office and spontaneously interact with the folks.  Great idea...

Leadership (not position) is the motivating force that drives self and

others to leave the status quo and strive for higher levels of performance.  Inspirational-leadership involves heart, not just the head and hands—it’s an act of creation, not control.  Positions don’t create or inspire…people do.  If you want to be a leader, you’ll...

Research made possible by recent MRI innovations has identified what part

of the human brain is firing when subjected to various stimuli.  Psychologists traditionally thought that people were generally rational beings who weighed options as the primary factor during decision-making.  That assumption has been proven wrong.  Findings from the research...

When CEOs select then consistently repeat “power words”  during internal

conversations with themselves or during discussions with others, they are not only describing, they are actually starting to create. Because humans live in language, it is critical to eliminate  negative dialogue.  I heard a formula one racer say,  “to win, you have...

At an Easter church service, I learned three Greek translations of the

...

Why do the insignificant behaviors of other people get on our nerves

at times?  I remember experiencing a bad hair day because a colleague  I would be spending a great deal of time with smacked his lips while chewing food.  The closer people are to each other, the more powerful the annoyance factor seems to become.  For years, I drove my family...

Most executives use metrics related to the output of group(s) reporting

directly or indirectly to their direct reports to assess the performance of each subordinate (what a poor choice of words).  For example the VP of sales is typically measured on sales numbers.  At first glance, this common practice makes sense, but using bottom line numbers exclusively...