January 18, 2022
Leaders often praise and reward heroic actions, the “dive in the dirt” moves that save the day. Sometimes speed and boldness win the day, but heroics can lure us into using ad-hoc interventions as a default instead of doing the less glamorous work that makes heroics rare and mostly unnecessary.
November 1, 2021
Boards can frequently trace flawed decisions to the process directors used in making the decision: unclear objectives, wrong information, disproportionately weighting options, etc. Often, however, the fault lies not with the process but with the mindset of those making decisions. When directors think about their decision-making in traditional ways, too often they fall through one of these decision-making traps..
January 27, 2021
Directors have reason to view the next years with optimism, in several industries. Pent-up demand for services in some sectors, combined with steady demand in others, will lead to continued growth. Savvy directors already recognize the following opportunities and are guiding their management teams appropriately. Which ones apply to your business?
November 18, 2020
I heard it again last week, “What’s the rush?” Sometimes I hear, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” or the one that really makes me crazy, “We are so much better than we were.” Many a leader has said to me a version of, “You should have known me ten years ago, I was much worse.” My all-time favorite was when an executive, in charge of risk management, yelled at me (complete with a red face), “Our decisions are NOT emotional!”
May 6, 2020
Boeing and The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) do not appear to have much in common but they do; each has seriously damaged the trust they once enjoyed. Though their circumstances are different, each has succumbed to big, but invisible leadership traps that do not restore trust...
March 4, 2020
We live near the Canadian Rockies, so we have several friends who are very good alpine skiers. Recently I was talking with one of them who has skied since he was a toddler. He recanted two funny stories in which he lost a ski...
January 14, 2020
When I spend time with a board, it’s pretty easy to quickly identify whether that board has a culture of vibrancy or not...
February 4, 2019
Several trends are contributing to more effective boards. Fortunately, albeit slowly, there is a positive trend of increased board diversity—on public boards in particular. Term limits […]
