Note: July 17, 2021 – Like many people, I was saddened to learn of Brian Boland’s passing. I had the good fortune of interviewing Brian a few years ago for an article that was published in Woodstock Magazine. He was very generous with his time, and a pleasure to talk to. You didn’t have to
From the Earth to the Sky – Tales from a Hot-Air Balloon Read More »
http://labradorleadership.com/021-dave-yarin-comes-to-talk-about-the-biggest-mistake-leaders-can-make-and-about-your-concentration-span/
http://www.smartbrief.com/original/2015/02/what-i-love-lucy-cheers-and-modern-family-tell-us-about-communicating I Love Lucy, Cheers and Modern Family are three of the most popular sitcoms in television history, but beyond giving multiple generations a lot to laugh about, these shows tell us something critical about our attention spans and communicating in today’s workplace. While watching Modern Family’s Mitch and Cam, Phil and Claire and company
The two marines stood at attention in their dress uniforms. Their perfectly shined shoes that glimmered on this sunny California day highlighted their crisp black jackets and blue pants. As people filed past, the marines did not so much as flinch or blink; a nod to the honor and code they upheld when presiding at
http://www.skipprichard.com/when-should-leaders-walk-away/ The supersonic Concorde jet’s tragic crash in 2000 and retirement in 2003 was the end of a troubled history for the aircraft. Plagued by design and development cost over-runs, the British and French governments that jointly developed the Concorde also knew that the plane wouldn’t be an economically viable business, yet they pressed on
http://www.smartbrief.com/original/2015/04/leadership-lessons-secret-services-struggles-interview-author-and The continued struggles of the Secret Service Agency are a series of failures and performance lapses that have gone on for several years. One person, however, was warning of the decline of the agency well before the Salahi’s crashed a State dinner in 2009; well before the 2012 prostitute scandal in Colombia; before a
http://www.smartbrief.com/original/2015/01/rethinking-effects-power-and-hierarchy-when-responding-warnings If someone were taking inappropriate or illegal actions in your organization, you, as a business leader, would hope that another employee who was aware of these actions would report the matter. You strive to set up an organization in which reporting a concern could be done without fear of retaliation. But what if an
A Different Take on the Effects of Power and Hierarchy When Responding to Warnings Read More »
http://www.smartbrief.com/original/2015/02/harry-markopolos-and-vulnerability-senior-management-ignoring-warnings It’s been six years since the discovery of Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme, but it’s been over 15 years since Harry Markopolos began warning the SEC about it. Why didn’t the SEC listen or investigate Markopolos’ warnings thoroughly until it was too late? Is it possible that the perception of Markopolos and his analytical personality
President Kennedy died three years before I was born, but I grew up in the large shadow of his life. I was keenly aware of the millions of people who admired him and felt that we had lost a magical leader and period in our country that we would never recapture. As we remember the
http://www.smartbrief.com/original/2014/10/normalization-deviance-when-saying-weve-never-had-problems-becomes The hours ticked down to launch time, and Roger Boisjoly had the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was January of 1986, and the highly respected Morton Thiokol rocket engineer and thermodynamicist was pleading with his supervisors and NASA to postpone the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on that unusually cold