The House that Vanderbilt Built
Recently, I spent a glorious day in a quaint area of New England where the Industrial Age’s rich and famous built their summer “cottages.” I emphasize the word cottage because this is what wealthy families in the late 19th and early 20th centuries called their Newport, Rhode Island homes. These edifices were simply summer get-always, […]
From Managing Millennials to Millennials as Managers
The workplace shift that Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have heard about for years has finally arrived. According to a recent report from EY (a global firm that includes Ernst & Young, LLP), 87% of Millennial managers took on new management roles between 2008 and 2013. Considering that Millennials (those born between 1981 and 2000) […]
Share Your Burden, Carry Your Load
We’ve all had it happen. It is mid-morning, and we’re in our office knee deep in a project—then there’s a knock at the door. “Hey, you know that project for the team that’s due tomorrow? I know this is last minute, but I had something come up. While you’re working on it, would you mind…?” […]
How is Your Stress Analysis?
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” Marcus Aurelius Stress has become second-nature to most people in leadership today. In fact, stress is no longer a variable to be […]
Making the Most of a Bad Situation
The smell of freshly cut grass and the crack of a bat typically signal an after-work activity or family outing rather than a chance to look deeper into leadership skill sets. And after this summer’s scandals of bad decision-making by a few baseball players, some people may tend to steer away from “America’s game” for […]
Leadership Lessons from 1776
We’ve all heard in history classes that knowing about the past is critical for improving the present and future. I find this is especially true when I reflect upon the leadership lessons that we can learn from the trying times of the American Revolution. Upon revisiting Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough’s book 1776, the story […]
Margaret Thatcher: Glass Ceiling Breaker & History Maker
With leadership comes controversy. Whether guiding ten people or tens of thousands, even the best leaders will have their admirers and antagonists. Margaret Thatcher, who recently left the world she impacted so greatly, experienced both extremes throughout her illustrious professional career. Thatcher’s rise from grocer’s’ daughter to three-term reign as Great Britain’s Prime Minister has […]
A Leader’s North Star
In days gone by, mariners made their way through seas and vast oceans using a system called celestial navigation. This astronavigation involved using “sights” between the visible horizon and a celestial body such as the sun, moon, or one of 57 stars. The most popular of those stars was Polaris, commonly referred to as the […]