EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP SYSTEMS

The Problem with Different Languages – English as the International Linqua Franca

    “Without language, we cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savor their songs.” – Nelson Mandela A Tale of Two Presidents

On Wednesday, May 3, 2017, President Donald Trump welcomed Mahmoud Abbas to the White House. Mr. Abbas is the President of the State of Palestine. In his opening public…

Nero Fiddled Away While Rome Burned – A Lesson in Innovation and Latency

My very good friend Dr. Ethiraj Prabhu from Chennai, India, a principal member of the ELS and PGA Advisory Boards, provided an excellent comment in response to a previous blog on Innovation and Innovators (see: A Desk Full of Stuff). As is the case with quality intellectual exchange, his ideas got me thinking. I wanted to act fast in responding to his observations and in sharing my reaction. Here…

A Desk Full of Stuff – A Company with Issues – An Innovation Opportunity

A Desk or a Company – It all the Same

Imagine yourself standing in an executive office. In an appropriate power position within the office (there are a lot of studies about this) sits a five-foot by seven-foot executive desk. Every square inch of that desk is covered with “stuff”. There are notes, correspondence, papers, and reports in leaning, crumbling towers looking like decrepit skyscrapers……

Inspiring Innovation – Twenty-six Hours of Innovation Coaching

Inspiring Innovation

A couple of days back, I received the following questions in response to a blog I recently wrote on Innovation from Mr. Prabhu Murthy of United Africa Health. Mr. Murthy is a young entrepreneur in Mauritius.  “Interesting post. I enjoyed reading it. According to me, Innovation requires inspiration, freedom, passion and creativity. Dr Ed, what inspires people to innovate? How…

Launching Innovation with Velocity (LIV) – Three Steps to Initial Success

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” – Peter F. Drucker “One cannot solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it.” – A. Einstein Why Every Organization Should Innovate

Two quotes from two pretty smart guys cut to the heart of it all with respect to Innovation. Change is a constant for all of us – in our personal lives and our professional lives. Some…

A New Years’ Resolution Worth Keeping

The New Year is looming just ahead of us all. New Years’ Resolutions will soon be popping up like mushrooms. Most of make them on the 1st of January and forget them by the 15th. This year, after watching the Us Presidential Elections and looking forward to the January Inauguration, I thought about a universal Resolution we should all resolve to keep and…

Will Donald Trump Become The Leader We Expect Him To Be? – Seven Steps Every Leader Should Take to Establish and Maintain Their Leadership Character

Help Trump Build His Leadership Character as You Build Our Own

Now that he is President-Elect, Donald J. Trump must focus on developing the Leadership Character required to be successful in his entirely new role. Leadership Character is built through conscious effort and deep commitment to that effort. It doesn’t happen by osmosis; that won’t be the case for Mr. Thump and it won’t be the case…

There is More to a Race than Just Running – Five Questions to Ask Before You Reach the Starting Line

Great Expectations

The greater the expectation the greater the potential for disappointment. I expected both candidates would be more focused on the real issues voters care about at this stage of their race.

So, the 2nd Presidential Candidates Debate of 2016 – actually the candidates themselves – fell well short of my expectations (again). Neither candidate seems to really understand the race…

What’s Winning? The Question Clinton and Trump Should Have asked Themselves Before Their First Debate

Who Won?

My friend and business partner, Shohrab Hossain, began our weekly conference call with a question, “What did you think of the candidates’ performances in the 1st 2016 Presidential Candidates Debate; who do you think won?” That he asked the question didn’t surprise me. Shohrab is a Bangladeshi, living and working now in Toronto, Canada. I met him when I was the CEO of Apollo Hospital…

Are You A Uniter or a Divider? – Eight Keys to Maintaining Your Leadership Gravitas and Posture

“The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person [emphasis added]…” – Barack Obama

“That’s just how white folks will do you. It wasn’t merely the cruelty involved; I was learning that black people could be mean and then some. It was a particular brand of arrogance, an obtuseness in otherwise sane people that brought…

Right Way Leadership – And What Colin Kaepernick’s Poor Performance Serves to Teach Us All

A Right Way Leader?

 “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” – Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers

Twenty-eight year old, San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick has now, for two pre-season games, refused to stand for the playing of our US National Anthem which historically precedes the “kickoff” of every…

Five Leadership Guidelines Ryan Locthe Never Learned

  Five Leadership  Guidelines Ryan Lochte Never Learned

We learn from our leaders, the good ones and the bad ones. We, as leaders, should know that those we lead learn from us, often whether we choose to teach them or not. They learn whether they expect to or not. They learn from what we say, how we say it; they learn from what we do and how we do it. Those we lead even learn from what we choose…

R-E-S-P-E-C-T is Missing in Our Personal Lives: Three Easy Steps to Rebuilding Self-Respect and Respect for Others

R-E-S-P-E-C-T is Missing in Our Personal Lives: Three Easy Steps to Rebuilding Self-Respect and Respect for Others

The past few weeks I have watched the Republican National Convention (RNC), the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and all of the activities flowing from them. All of this occurred around a flurry of police officer-involved killings and the outright assassination of police…

Honestly – Hillary, as a Leader, has lost Credibility

Honestly – Hilary Clinton, as a Leader, has lost Credibility

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman” – Bill Clinton

To be honest is to be “free from fraud or deception, marked by free, forthright and sincere expression.” Credibility is the quality of being trusted and believed in. I want and need my leaders to be honest and credible. I want to feel good about myself in aligning with…

6 Questions Asked Before Dropping the Atomic Bomb and How They Can Make You a Better Decision-Maker

A Millennial leader and manager in India challenged me with these questions after he read the recent blog on Latency Kills (Latency Kills), “I get that we need to take action to be effective leaders. But, how can we be certain the actions we take and cause others to take are the right actions for the situation? Can’t a wrong action or set of actions lead to disastrous consequences for you, for…

Latency Kills – Better Take Action Now!

My friend Bill Welter of Adaptive Strategies (www.adaptstrat.com) sent out an excellent blog this week, Turning Words into Actions. In his piece, Bill makes four points: 1. The business environment is always changing; 2. Leaders have difficulty implementing concepts – making them real; 3. Projects can make strategy real, but too few project managers are actually good at leading projects; and,