In 1958, Robert Greenleaf published his essay, “Essentials of Servant Leadership”. The core as explained in the “Essentials” is: “The servant-leader is servant first… Becoming a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from [Continue Reading]
The Real Deal “Shadows”
A few friends have a Michigan-based public relations, social marketing and search engine optimization firm and the past ten years have been good years for their growth and volume. Recently I had dinner with Andre and Mackey; we shared work stories. Without disclosing any client names they were clamoring to share a recent project, a [Continue Reading]
Privileges And Responsibilities
This week we encountered a number of situations that drove me back to metrics. In business we should spend some time measuring, we should measure sales, profits, growth rates, ROI (return on investment) and rate of growth. An issue with many of these metrics is that they report history rather than being a tool to [Continue Reading]
Leading Change — Let Go of the Banana
Leading Change — Let Go of the Banana By Terry Seamon Guest Columnist Snopes says it’s an urban legend. But just a few days ago, there it was again, the story of how to catch a monkey. In the most recent version (in a great blog entry by international business consultant Aad Boot), the monkey [Continue Reading]
What Do You Call A Leader With No Followers? Just A Guy Taking A Walk!
Leadership. Walk through any business section of a book store will amaze you at the tonnage of books related to Leadership, in business. You’ll find texts offering Bill Gates secrets, Bill Russell’s rules, how Jack Welch earned his title, “Neutron Jack”, and Jeff Bezos and the creation of Amazon.com. You’ see books by Maxwell listing [Continue Reading]
Smart Goals – Can you see yours?
Can you see your goal? Is it Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, given a Timeframe? Bobby Jones, the famous golfer said, “I’ve played a few rounds with friends, but I’ve never played a friendly round.” Golf like many other sports requires “muscle memory”. Muscle memory is when you train your muscles to perform the same way [Continue Reading]
Language defines the message in business culture
Language matters. Spoken language is the most powerful communication tool used to enable teams, cultures and companies. Time and time again we see great leaders investing time and grappling with the message. They understand that spoken words, capture the imagination, excite, inspire, ignite action and raise spirits. Language matters! Great teams, great cultures have their [Continue Reading]
Larry Page – Leadership Lessons from Google’s Co-founder
Larry Page is a local guy born in East Lansing. He is the son of two MSU professors. Page attended the University of Michigan and Stanford. Google was born as his Ph.D. dissertation, originally called ‘BackRub’. Do you think Larry Page manages Google like a Family Business? In a recent Fast Company feature it shares [Continue Reading]