In my first semester in graduate school at Colorado State University, I had to take a business leadership class as part of the MBA curriculum. “The Leadership Challenge”, by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, was the book we read and studied as part of this class. Within the book, Kouzes and Posner identify five principles…… Continue reading Book Review: The Leadership Challenge
Yoda has the appearance of a wise old sage, an elder with deep insight and full of wisdom. In the Star Wars universe, perhaps the single most important hero in the saga is Yoda, a Jedi master of very advanced age and immense wisdom. After the fall of the republic, Yoda goes into hiding, waiting…… Continue reading The Importance of Leading Like Yoda
Watching Star Wars when they originally came out was a significant moment in my life. I was rather young, and very impressionable. I was about five at the time. Over time, I have grown to see the movie in different ways, but still love them equally now as I did when I first saw them. …… Continue reading Obi-Wan Kenobi Jedi Knight and Good Leader
Known as the “Iron Horse” while as a player for the New York Yankees, Lou Gehrig was a key figure for the team through the 1920’s and 1930’s. Often playing in the shadow of the headline grabbing George Herman “Babe” Ruth, Gehrig displayed a team first attitude and is often considered one of the all-time…… Continue reading Leadership Qualities of Lou Gehrig
Disaster planning can be easily compared to data management for people who work in offices, where computer usage is a routine part of their job. In my experiences working in the IT sector, I have seen so often where our end-users experience panic and shock when they encounter a PC problem that jeopardizes their data. …… Continue reading Succession Planning IS Important
A general concept in the business world is the concept of it is not what you know, it is who you know. Everybody wants a promotion or to be recognized when an opportunity presents itself. As a manager, there are things I look for in future staffing plans. Normally I prefer to promote from within…… Continue reading Qualities That Lead to Growth and Promotions
Under conditions of heightened competition and pressing needs for innovation, organizations need to routinely collect performance metrics. Organizations may need to track different data; such as a mining company would prefer to measure how much iron or coal they are digging up, while a hospital needs to measure items such as average length of stay…… Continue reading Respect of Leaders, Morale, and Company Culture
As a manager, it may be nice to think of giving an order, and the staff follows it without question. It seems to be a good example of a strong organizational hierarchy, or the most effective and efficient way to run a department. I am the manager, they are the staff I supervise, and there…… Continue reading Should Staff Blindly Follow Orders?
The University of Michigan football team will forever be associated with its former head coach, Bo Schembechler. During his tenure as the head football coach, Michigan prospered and was routinely among the top ranked football programs in the nation. In addition to being a top performing program, many of the former players went on to…… Continue reading Book Review: Bo’s Lasting Lessons
Deep Thinking 