Category: Uncategorized

I had the opportunity last week to ask a successful coach (football) about how you can know if you’re really on a team.  The question came up in a group of business leaders.  I told the coach about how common it is for organizations to throw the word "team" around.  My experience has shown that many spell team "I."  I thought if anyone would know about what makes a team a "real" team this guy would.

He responded that you can know its a real team when the members care more about others on the team, than they do about themselves.  By the way, this gentlemen helps The Ohio State University football team do great things.  Thought that we be important to note.

So, are you on a team or something else?

Welcome to twentieth century America business.  As this story from ABCNews.com communicates, executives are kinda guilty, so they’ve decided to retire. 

Isn’t the first step in fixing a problem admitting that you have one. 

I guess we’ve decided that character and ethics are a situational thing.  No wonder the majority of employees are disengaged.  Would you be engaged if top leadership acted in the way many of these "brilliant" people have?  Not to mention the kinda/sorta approach the organization takes in admitting wrong. 

United Healthcare’s stock rose after the announcement so I guess all is well. 

Not for a minute folks…

Check out Seth Godin’s announcement for his seminar in New York this December.  I won’t be able to make it (a very special and beautiful lady who I’ve known for twenty years has a birthday that day), but here’s a link to the event details.

Now this isn’t meant to poke fun at CEOs, but wow!  Today is the day for many a resignation.  See this article from Bloomberg about McAfee and CNET.  Do you understand what the fuss is all about?  Hey, they just changed a few dates to make reality a little different than what it really was.

Not shocked here about the problem.  We (American Culture) have been playing this game of truth-lite.  You know what I mean…wink, wink, nudge, nudge.  But we are now seeing the results of this insane logic.  Sadly, the next group of executives (hopefully the ethical ones) are going to be so hamstrung by regulatory/legal scrutiny, not to mention employee cynicism, that getting on with the business of business will be very difficult.

Check-out my post on character and skills development.  It should be required reading for many executives.

In my last entry I told you how dangerous it is for skills development to exceed character development.  This piece from Fortune illustrates the point. 

The end doesn’t justify the means!

What’s ironic here is that we’ve become a business culture that disagrees with the statement above.  When the cameras are rolling we espouse character, integrity and good judgment.  But when the lights go out we a apply our instincts (instincts not held in check by integrity equals bad behavior) or a "do what you’ve got to do" approach.  In the end, its pretty obvious what certain organizations really believe.

The question remains; what kind of legacy is this business culture creating?

Today it was revealed that Cablevison back-dated stock options for a deceased vice-chairman.  Sounds like they pulled this one right out of Richard Daley’s how-to-win-an election playbook.  This link from MSN Money details what happened, but oh my!

I’m starting to wonder if corporate America is just drunk with greed and deception.  Sadly, many will right this off and ask how the Cablevision stock is doing. 

We’re opening the door to the socialists…

Just finishing up editing (my review for flow and typos) and then off to my professional editor for the book project.  I’ve changed the title as well…I’ll wait til later to reveal that.  But I can see the tape, so stay tuned for updates

I found this piece in today’s Wall Street Journal (wsj091806.pdf) and it registered with me.  It spoke volumes about how long it can take to truly define success.  Each of us must figure that one out, but the article gives you much to think about.

Sometimes its easy to just get caught up in what is expected.  For example, my dad worked a job for thirty-five years, so I know that’s the right thing to do.  Funny how often we never ask is that what we want to do.  History is full of those who put their "chips" on making money and retiring in leisure.  Truth be told we want more…at least those of us who are awake.

I’m north of forty now and my definition of success is clear.  Sometimes I feel like it has taken more time than it should have, but my story’s on track.  I have no regrets…forever now.

You might not be even close to forty, but time is strange.  None us know how much time we have.  That implies an urgency to get on with what matters.  So, what matters to you…the real you?

It occurred to me today that we can easily miss evaluating losses.  You might call it a review of mistakes and/or failures.  Either way it is valuable to evaluate when things go "south." 

One thing you must remember is that the losses aren’t designed to kill you.  It can feel like that at times, but we really gain the most in our times of banishment.  Success (as I’ve written before) can be our worst enemy.  It can lull us and dull us into believing that life is all about winning.  Obviously, life isn’t always about winning.  If it were then we’d devour each other in a heartbeat.  Some may argue that that’s what we have in America today.  I’d like to believe not.

So what have you learned?

Think about the following questions:

1. Have you forgotten the "losses?"
2. Have the lessons you’ve learned taken root?  In other words, are you a changed person?
3. Has your level of empathy risen?  Do you care about someone whose facing what you’ve faced?
4. Do you value the time you have left?

See Tom Peter’s blog entry on engagement in the workplace.  Been discussed here often, but nice to see others writing about it. 

Even if you don’t believe in statistics you’ll be thinking about the power around the issue.

How important is engagement when you can’t find top leadership talent?  In the coming years we’ll see how…