Archives for “Leadership”
Tweet “To understand more clearly what is meant by judgement, imagine a singles match being played by Mr. A and Mr. B, with Mr. C acting as the umpire. Mr. A is serving his second serve to Mr. B on the first point of a tie-breaker. The ball lands wide, and Mr. C calls, “Out. [...]
Tweet Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal. – Robert Heinlein Leadership, I frequently say, is about “making good decisions with limited information.” Not perfect decisions. But good decisions. You don’t have a choice in business: move quickly or die. And unlike CEOs on Wall Street, the small business CEO’s worst [...]
Tweet “The crux of the matter is that in the past, networks have been viewed as objects of pure structure whose properties are fixed in time. Neither of these assumptions could be further from the truth. First, real networks represent populations of individual components that are actually doing something – generating power, sending data, or [...]
Tweet RAMSAY GILLMAN (from Chron.com) Ramsay Gillman, born in Houston, Texas on the 1st of February 1944, the son of Frank and Lula Gillman, died on Friday, the 3rd of June in his home in Houston. He was preceded in death by his father, mother, and brother, Barton Gillman. He is survived by his beloved [...]
Tweet “Hey wait. You’re the captain of the ship. We can talk about what direction we’re going. But we’re going in a direction. And if there’s a debate about what direction we’re going, it’s my ship, I’m gonna pick at the end of the day. I’m gonna take everyone’s input. But there’s gonna come a [...]
Tweet As the company has grown over the years, I have hit a number of tipping points that were unexpected and hurt the company. Unfortunately I have been unable to find a book that predicts these moments accurately and I know few people who have organically grown a 30+ employee 13 year old technology and [...]
Tweet This is a cross post. To comment go to the official version on the Chron here. Ed Schipul In 2006 Rick Perry passed an uneven business income tax in the state of Texas. This is in conflict with the Texas state constitution which states you can not have an income tax without a referendum. [...]
Tweet Less fairy tale than fable about the consequences of collective hypocrisy, Andersen’s story bears a message that has become a proverbial truth… Choosing to ignore what is in plain sight and blindly acting as if there were nothing wrong are the targets of Andersen’s satirical barbs. That it takes an “innocent” child to divine [...]
Tweet As someone who regularly recommends the book Absolute Honesty to people, I found this HBR post on Authentic Leadership to be very interesting: Most people can agree that authenticity is of great value. We’d rather be — or follow — a leader who is for real than one who is faking it. Acting in [...]
Tweet I emailed out to the company today’s quote of the day, something we do internally, with the three quotes below. But given how popular advice from 37 Signals is among some of my employees, I wanted to add some commentary (after the jump). And BTW, I definitely agree with these three quotes from Rework. [...]
Tweet “And if you ask her for a new assignment, a promotion into a new role, you’re likely to hear the speech she first heard long ago from Mr. Hicks about “getting to zero” with a job. To explain, she picks up a piece of paper and draws a line across it. She shades an [...]
Tweet Thoughts on excuses and accusations in leadership. Back in College I played a lot of racquetball tournaments and played on the Texas A&M racquetball team. I also coached a few hours a week, sometimes kids, sometimes other students, at the local gyms in College Station Texas. Every once in a while when coaching a [...]
Tweet Soothsayer. Caesar! Caesar. Ha! who calls? Casca. Bid every noise be still: peace yet again! Caesar. Who is it in the press that calls on me? 100 I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Cry ‘Caesar!’ Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear. Soothsayer. Beware the ides of March. Caesar. What man is [...]
Tweet “I once watched a highly intelligent Pueblo Indian engaged in intercultural education programs struggle and sweat to put into words a problem he and his people were having to cope with. Whenever a white man is put down in the middle of a pueblo, the Indians must cope with his narcissism as expressed by [...]
Tweet “It is OK to point out what it is wrong, but it is more important to stand for what it is right.” Via the Amazing JJ who knows I am a student of leadership. Thank you JJ!
Tweet The “Sandwich Method” of feedback was the first method of constructive criticism I learned as a young manager right out of university. You know it – 1) say something positive then 2) give the constructive criticism and then 3) close with a positive statement. Example: Mary, you are doing a great job on the [...]
Tweet The way I see it he said You just can’t win it Everybody’s in it for their own gain You can’t please ‘em all There’s always somebody calling you down I do my best And I do good business There’s a lot of people asking for my time They’re trying to get ahead They’re [...]
Tweet The following are my notes from listening to Jim Collin‘s audio coaching on “getting the right people on the bus.” From Jim Collins: The Five Key Things to Consider When Looking for the Right People “What are the characteristics of the right people? Are there any generic characteristics we are looking for in the [...]
Tweet The Chron.com started a new blog called The List and asked me to guest blog post. My first (and only) post so far is titled: Chron Post: Millennials head under a rock The GI generation, by all accounts, appears to have raised one of the biggest groups of spoiled kids our country has ever [...]
Tweet I just finished reading The Simple Truth About Your Business, Why Focused and Steady Beats Business at the Speed of Light. By Alex Brennan-Martin, a man I have had the privilege of meeting. And a man who has earned a good amount of my money from celebrating dinners at his Houston restaurant with my [...]
Tweet Just because you are smart doesn’t mean your opinion matters. Yup, you got lottsa gray matter up there, plenty of neurons firing at will, but perhaps the best course of action is to acknowledge you and ignore you. Or me. Here’s the point. Being smart is, you know, pedantic. Narrow. Baseline. Easy. It’s like [...]
Tweet Reading Gladwell‘s book Outliers, and this quote grabbed my attention. He’d had to make his way alone, and no one — not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses — ever makes it alone. I have always disliked the phrase “self made man” because in my experience I have [...]