For the past several months my email in-box has been full of requests from clients to put together a special program on “Accountability.” In just that past few weeks I have zig-zagged across the country delivering custom sessions to State Farm, Verizon, Harman, and Abbott Labs. It is obvious that with the current business climate, companies are trying to do more work, with less people… greatly increasing the pressure on every employee to deliver what is expected of them - on time and done superbly.

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I spend a fair amount of time doing research on the net looking for cool information. In this blog I want to share with you some of my very favorite resources that I go to often for ideas, inspiration and instruction. There is some incredible information on these sites… Read the rest of this entry »

For the past 14 years I have served as an advisor and coach to more than 300 companies worldwide. Recently, I have had a number of clients ask for my advice on how to handle the current business downturn. In some of the industries I work in the numbers look extremely bleak and I am predicting that there is going to be a serious shakeout of any weak players. To make sure you are one of the strong that survive, here are my top recommendations for what you need to focus on to successfully navigate these difficult economic times. Read the rest of this entry »

A very close friend of mine, David Huffman, is considering opening up a restaurant, so I wanted to give him a few quick ideas to help him get his new venture off to a super start, but really I think these ideas apply to just about any business… Read the rest of this entry »

Just as often as writing unique articles for this blog, I like to pass along interesting things from other folks. For any of you that know me, you know I am a voracious reader - and proud collector of OPI (other people’s ideas). Why re-invent the wheel, when some incredibly smart person has already perfected it and you can download it for free from the Internet? So here is a super article I found on Authentic Leadership. Hope you enjoy… Read the rest of this entry »

I am a huge fan of Tom Peters. Love his books, ideas, and rants. I have met Tom on several occasions and really enjoy his quick wit, wry sense of humor and passion for business excellence. This is an article from Richard King, the director of the Tom Peters consultancy in UK, that was just posted on Tom’s site — I think he has some strong ideas for what it will take to weather the upcoming business challenges. Worth taking five minutes to read…

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A very close friend asked me to facilitate his organization’s upcoming strategic planning retreat, but unfortunately the days he needed were already booked for another client. The next best thing I could offer was some advice. I have probably facilitated 80 or 90 retreats in the last 20 years, from non-profits to the Fortune 50 - here is how I typically approach a planning retreat… Read the rest of this entry »

I was recently invited to return to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business for the fourth year in a row to teach a special class on strategic planning for the Securities Industry Institute. I called my contact a few months before the session to ask if it was possible to shift the class more from “strategic planning” to “strategic thinking” this year, but was surprised to find out that 98 executives had already signed up for the class based on the catalog description of it as “a solid look at how to write an effective strategic plan.” So, I decided to go back and take a hard look at the program and see if I could update it a bit and was surprised to have an epiphany of sorts…

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