A few years ago, I read the book Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change. It remains one of my favorite business books of the last decade. The authors are part of a consulting firm called Vital Smarts and I’m subscribed to their newsletter. Vital Smarts has recently launch a series called The Behavioral Science…
Book Review
Follow Your Conscience by @FSonnenberg
When my son was three years old, he and I had a wonderful teachable moment while shopping. As we left the grocery store with our purchases, I realized that a greeting card I meant to buy had slipped down into the shopping cart. I hadn’t yet paid for it. “Oh, we need to go back…
Book Review: The Culture Engine
In the foreword of the book The Culture Engine management consultant Ken Blanchard highlights two elements of servant leadership. The first is “strategic leadership” which are practices that outline the “why” of the organization and form the basis of the company’s culture. The second element of servant leadership is “operational leadership” which is the day-to-day actions…
How to Develop Your Trusted Inner Circle
The other day I picked up a copy of Trust Rules: How to Tell the Good Guys from the Bad Guys in Work and Life from the library. “Good guys” and “bad guys” seemed a bit stark in its philosophy, but admittedly, the title caught my eye. So I checked it out and read it. I’m…
There is No Such Thing as an Ideal Leader
Looking back, I can now see it for what it was: there was some serious hero-worship going on. At the time, it didn’t really feel that way, because it was my boss. If you would have asked me before “the incident”, I would have said that I was doling out well-deserved respect to my work…