Dirty Management Truth: What’s Up?
Dirty truth: Most of us were never taught how to manage an individual, and especially when that individual goofed up. We mimic our parents, bosses, Murphy Brown, Donald Trump. We dislike it. They...
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Mulhern Mistake #502 – Failure to Proactively Recruit
I saw Spiderman: Homecoming this weekend. I like the guy. But at one point hubris got him. Doesn’t it always? Next thing you know, his recklessness results in a Staten Island Ferry splitting in...
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Leading Through Division
Could Trump Kaepernick and the NFL teach us all something about leading in our own individual, collective and sometimes divisive lives? I think so. If you haven’t been following the National Football...
View ArticleTwo Powerful Listening Practices
It’s extraordinary how we learn shortcuts and habits in everything we do in order to be more efficient. It’s pretty cool. Of course, our practices and habits cause us not only to repeat good shortcuts...
View ArticleMending Division in Your Leadership World
Read if there is division in your world. If not, skip it. Two stories. 4 points of view. Please see if you can withhold judgment. Story 1. A dear mentee and friend. He’d spent more than a handful of...
View ArticleHow to Take a Big Leap in Leadership Effectiveness
I sincerely believe I am going to leap forward in my teaching-leadership this week, because I got a great gift a week ago. The context for the gift was my sending students an email last weekend. In it,...
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Be Careful How You Characterize
Authors create characters. Back in 1982, when I was entirely smitten with the work of novelist Walker Percy, I wrote him a letter to tell him that his writing was so good that I felt his characters...
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Who’s a Great Partner and What Do You Look For?
My co-writer, John Gillis, says “No one leads alone. No one.” When you pull away the perceptual film of “the leader,” you see “leading by two” is everywhere. We can learn how we best pair by looking...
View ArticleFinding the Mohamed Bouazizi in Your World
Friends, I’m looking for the Mohamed Bouazizi in my world. . . and in yours. Mind you, this is scary leadership stuff. Bouazizi was angry. He was a street vegetable vendor. A policewoman fined him and...
View ArticleYou Have No Idea (What They’re Thinking)
Friends, My friend Cheryl Polk said something to me I’ll never forget, “We share the same physical space,” she said, “but we don’t share the same psychological space.” Cheryl’s a psychologist, an...
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Kid Kate Coaches on Coaching
Friends, I can’t quite figure out what to think of the fact that Kate, our oldest daughter, was the one of our three kids who seemed to need the most coaching; and now at 22, she’s expert and...
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Lincoln, Washington, You – stature and leadership
Friends, To paraphrase Tina Turner, “What’s height got to do with it?” Well, it seems like a lot. When George Washington at 6’1″ served as first president he was literally a head taller than many of...
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When an Important Partnership is Strained – Part Two
Last week I suggested that the best way to renew a strained partnership is to work on yourself. I suggested I must lead with my best self to begin with the assumption that I have done something to...
View ArticleHow We’ve Discovered Untapped Resources
I was with a client last week and they repeatedly used the word “under-resourced.” If you’re not Google or Twitter, that statement probably applies to you, right? We’re all stretched thin in these...
View ArticleGaining Leverage With Challenging “Allies”
Although we battle with some adversaries, e.g., Obama v. Assad; most of our difficulties – truth be told are with allies, those in our tent: Boehner with the Tea Party, mom with dad, CEO with COO, boss...
View ArticleBosses Forget They Have Permanent Megaphones
My friend Miss Take – the professor of the school of lessons-from-experience — taught me a good one again this week. It was a “dad mistake,” but reminiscent of “boss mistakes” I’ve seen and boss...
View Article5 Things Leaders Do When Emotions Are High
Last week, I noted that any leadership problem that’s worth its salt will have emotion bursting through it. Whether that problem’s a “rebellious teenager,” the Israelis and Palestinians, employee...
View ArticleHow Can You Lead When You’re Unsure
I invite my students to begin the semester by writing about what would make this their Best Class Ever. You could think, I suppose about what could make this your best summer ever (need that be...
View ArticleFinding the Mohamed Bouazizi in Your World
Friends, I’m looking for the Mohamed Bouazizi in my world. . . and in yours. Mind you, this is scary leadership stuff. Bouazizi was angry. He was a street vegetable vendor. A policewoman fined him and...
View ArticleYou Have No Idea (What They’re Thinking)
Friends, My friend Cheryl Polk said something to me I’ll never forget, “We share the same physical space,” she said, “but we don’t share the same psychological space.” Cheryl’s a psychologist, an...
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