Blog

Musings, stories and insights on leadership practices from over 30 years of lived experience as a senior executive management consultant

After three decades as a senior executive management consultant working in boutique firms all the way to being a partner in a large premier global firm I think I have learned a thing or two about effective leadership and organizational development practices. Today such practices have become part of mature management science curriculum taught in higher education. However when I started my journey my mentors were progressive thought leaders exploring new thinking in leadership and organization transformation: Kouzes, Posner, Bennis, Argyris, Heifetz, dePree, Beckhard, Nadler, Block, Leider, Tushman, Schein, Jaques, Senge, Drucker and others.  Through countless client engagements I have established an informed confidence in knowing what works and what doesn’t through curiosity, examined experience, and direct involvement consulting to real executives within a wide variety of organizations across many industries in several countries.

While this is regrettable today, it seems learning and reflection has to come in bite-size pieces that are pushed in front of our eyeballs and pre-frontal cortex with the hope of attaining momentary relevance and application. Perhaps then, such brief pieces of insight can then act as seeds planted in a fertile mind and heart to blossom later into a fully mature practice a leader embraces as his or her own.

I have organized these blogs into four categories

A group of people sitting at a table with laptops.

WHY DO SENIOR EXECUTIVES OFTEN MAKE LOUSY TEAM LEADERS? (PART ONE)

What we need to do is learn to work in the system, by which I...
A group of people sitting at a table with laptops.

WHY DO SENIOR EXECUTIVES OFTEN MAKE LOUSY TEAM LEADERS? (PART TWO)

None of us is as smart as all of us.- Ken Blanchard As I alluded...
A group of people sitting at a table with laptops.

WHY DO SENIOR EXECUTIVES OFTEN MAKE LOUSY TEAM LEADERS? (PART THREE)

No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.Ralph Waldo...
Two men shaking hands over a table with papers.

TO CHINA…WITH LOVE

Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly...
A man and woman shaking hands over papers.

LEADERS GET HONEST FEEDBACK TOO LATE IN THEIR CAREERS (PART ONE)

Many people die with their music still inside them Oliver Wendell Holmes Terry (fictitious name...
A man and woman shaking hands over papers.

LEADERS GET HONEST FEEDBACK TOO LATE IN THEIR CAREERS (PART TWO)

Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and it annoys...
A woman sitting at a table with other people.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IS ESSENTIALLY PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

My life is an indivisible whole, and all my activities run into one another...My life...
Two men shaking hands over a table with papers.

LEADING IN AN A.D.D. WORLD: GIVE SOMETHING PEOPLE CAN FOLLOW

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt...
A group of people sitting around a table.

IS YOUR LEADERSHIP ACTUALLY CREATING OR DESTROYING SUSTAINABLE VALUE?

If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything Anonymous I am writing...
A man in glasses is giving a presentation

AMBIGUITY IS NIRVANA FOR LEADERS

Do not follow where the path may lead.  Go instead where there is no path,...