To lead or manage others you must know what you want [Download PDF]: LI #164 The Primary Question LEADING AND MANAGING are necessary functions for the success of any group endeavor. An ongoing controversy is whether they are the same thing or two different things. My view is that they are not the same thing, but they overlap at important places. One point of intersection is at the very start: Leading and managing begin at the same place. In my ongoing search for helpful insig

Leaders sometimes need a reality check and an attitude adjustment [Download PDF]: Leadership and Human Nature THERE’S A MOMENT in the classic film Casablanca I especially enjoy. Czech freedom fighter Victor Laszlo has stirred up the patriotic fervor of the guests at Rick’s Café, and the Nazis are not pleased (the time is 1942). An incensed Major Strasser marches up to the cheerfully corrupt French policeman, Captain Renault (Claude Rains), and orders that the café be closed i

Your managerial values are your cultural blueprint [Download PDF]: LI#162 Communicate What You Most Care About A DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR in a medical company asked me to visit and give her a coaching checkup. Janet’s superior had suggested it, and I was happy to see what I could do. I was meeting her for the first time. Janet seemed friendly and personable. We sat down in her office and she talked about her situation. She led a staff of 15 serving the company’s physicians. Janet

Entropy is all around us. Leaders provide the antidote. [Download PDF]: LI#149 The Price of Excellence LIKE MANY PARENTS, leaders are often on a search for the magic pill. While few verbalize it, they long for some method by which they can instruct people once and have them go on to function like wind-up toys, without further attention. It can’t happen. As we enter a new year, it is a good time to reexamine expectations. What does it take to lead a team or organization to exc