I spoke recently to the incoming MBA class at The Goizueta School Of Business at Emory University.  The panel included several senior executives from large corporations. I was the only consultant or external practitioner on the panel. After the session, one of the visiting participants came up to me and made the following comment.  She [...]

continue reading.....

Many of you have heard me make a clear distinction between leadership and management.  I believe that leadership is an impersonal activity.  Management is a much more intimate activity.  Leaders stand before the group and paint a compelling picture of the direction the group is going. They seldom if ever go door-to-door to make sure [...]

continue reading.....

Back in 1977, Harvard professor Abraham Zaleznik penned his classic article entitled, Managers and Leaders: Are They Different. Over the next twenty five years, dozens of high profile authors have referenced that work and have concluded that yes, they are different and that failing companies obviously suffer from being under led and over-managed.  So, for [...]

continue reading.....

For a lot of obvious reasons, innovation has become the new catchword in business. Recent research by McKinsey reveals that there is a wide gap between the aspirations of executives to innovate and their ability to execute. 70% of senior executives say that innovation will be among the top three drivers of growth in the [...]

continue reading.....

I’m also a major proponent of using management as a catalyst for producing organizational success.  When the remaining questions, as we move deeper into the 21st-century is, what problem was management. as we know it, designed to solve? Gary Hamel suggests that old-style management was designed to get people to serve the organization goals. That [...]

continue reading.....

I have long contended that innovation lies at the intersection of creativity and diversity. My argument is that to get real innovation in an organization requires a well managed, diverse team of people, with the freedom to try new ideas and develop new ways of doing things. The problem as I see it is that [...]

continue reading.....

Action creates results, reaction creates excuses.
Every time you consciously chose something, you are producing results. You are the one who started everything, hence the reality obeyed you. Again, even if the action was, by any standard, a failure. Reality responded to your stimulus and created a result. Maybe it wasn’t the result you wanted, but [...]

continue reading.....

The difference between action and reaction is not always simple. Most of the time we’re acting by habit, and habits are just safe reactions. We know how to ride a bike, we learned how to do it, when we’re on the bike, we’re just reacting to it. It’s a safe reaction. Many of our habits [...]

continue reading.....

Acting is rewarding, reacting is frustrating.
Every time you act on something, you are rewarded in some way. Not every conscious action will be successful. You may fail at times. Maybe many times. But you still get your reward. When you fail, the reward is in learning. You made a choice, you acted in a specific [...]

continue reading.....

Acting is independent of the context, reacting is totally dependent of the context.
You may be in favorable contexts at times. When you’re a kid, most of the time you’re in a continuous favorable context. The problem is that context is artificial, you are protected by your parents. While you’re a kid, in a favorable context, [...]

continue reading.....