I’ve always been a fan of Tiger Woods and most probably, so have you. As a golfer, I’m in awe of his shot making prowess, determined focus and theatrical understanding that professional sports are all about entertainment. His success as an African American golfer has broken barriers for young boys and girls of color who previously saw this sport as inaccessible. He sacrificed much of his life in pursuit of his goals and his success shined such a bright light...

In our new book, Retooling Leadership Development, Michael Couch and I write about the importance of leaders taking on hard challenges as a way to learn and grow. The challenges must have what we call “developmental heat.” They can’t be easy, and they have to create some adversity that forces the leader to think about things differently and to try out new behaviors. Recently I was working with a newly promoted division leader who was focused on being the lead...

My first foray into a family run business happened early in my life when I use to help out my mom and dad at their small retail paint store. I greeted customers, helped them find the right kind of paint and even got to work with the paint shaking machine, which was the most fun. There was something satisfying but challenging about running a family business, but it was obviously not in my parent’s genes as they gave it up...

Leaders must be good at self-management. It is one of the themes my colleague Mike Couch and I discuss in our upcoming book, Retooling Leadership Development. One area of the “self-management” refrain related to how leaders deal with the daily tsunami of emails that come across their desk. We find that some leaders try to stay on top of them on “as they come in basis,” some on a “3X a day basis,” and some on a “whenever they can...

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discussed a seismic shift in how people view their jobs. According to surveys completed by the Gallup Organization, the vast majority of workers now state that having a great life comes from having a great job. The article goes on to say that the best way to have a great job is to have a great boss who knows what she or he is doing. This leads, of course, to engaged employees...

It’s been just about a week since Boeing 737 Max airplanes were grounded around the world. We’ve heard from politicians, safety experts and airline passengers but surprisingly little from Boeing itself. They’ve posted a half-hearted statement on their website indicating their support of the action taken but no large scale communication initiative has been undertaken by the company. There are 2 types of actions an organization can take to address critical issues. The first is preventive, where a known problem...