The current crisis facing Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is a reminder that none of us can outrun our past. No matter what he did or did not do three decades ago, his handling of the situation has made the situation worse and has called his credibility, character, and leadership into
One of the most essential attributes of good leadership is the ability to establish and prioritize big picture goals and values. It is leaders’ job to keep everyone on the same page about the company’s mission. They’re the ones who set the tone for which behaviors are encouraged and not
I just spent a memorable two days walking the Gettysburg battlefield attending The Conference Board’s Leadership Development Experiential Program. Our group, drawn from several organizations, read and studied before we met; we received incisive battlefield histories delivered by Tony NiCastro, a military historian. Dick Richardson, Jeff Jackson, and David Hutchens,
Mergers are a stressful time in the life of a company for both executives and employees as a whole. Fear of what the merger means for them and their future often leads to major distractions for your team. This uncertainty has the potential to pull their attention away from your
Most companies have values and mission statements, but many times there is a disconnect between what’s posted on the break room wall and the actual culture. Have you ever stopped to think about how your company’s culture was created, how it evolved, or what it looks like now? It may
On a visit last month to the Northwest Montana Fair in Kalispell, I stood in the horse barn watching a teenage girl attempt to pull her mare into a stall. With sweat forming across her forehead and her feet sliding across the straw-covered boards of the barn, she pulled hard
“My cats shredded your couch. You are correct.” This is the phrase that converted my husband’s lack of appreciation for cats into a wholesale intolerance of anything remotely feline. It was uttered by his then roommate, a woman with two cats to whom he very reluctantly rented one of the
“It was a lot easier when we were all in our twenties, working out of our garage.” The comment came from one of my clients. We were meeting to talk about how some of the ways that he, now in his early forties and an executive for a multi-million dollar
How do you build an enduring business or enterprise when the world is changing so fast? For years now, I’ve heard leaders from various industries ask their leadership teams that very question. Many answer the question by focusing on products and services that are or will soon be needed. They’re
Congratulations are due to Katherine Archuleta, who stepped in to her role as director of the Office of Personnel Management on November 4. Her main objective: to champion federal workers. A noble goal and, as with most things worthy, not easy. Let’s face it, it’s been tough to be a federal worker over
