Pro football season is in full swing now, and as I watch the drama unfold every week on the field, I am once again reminded of how many business insights can be gleaned from the gridiron. […]
leadership
Surfing and business have a lot in common. Both require agility, just the right amount of speed, and the ability to read coming waves. The parallels between surfing and business became even more apparent to me as I learned the story of Derek Rabelo, a blind surfer. You may have seen the popular video of […]
brand-as-business bit: What do you get when you bring together Human Resources, Marketing, and Ops people for an event featuring best-selling business book authors, a talent show, a community service project, and lots of stickers, beads, and trail mix?! Summer Brand Camp, an annual “conference” for the restaurant industry staged by People Report / Black […]
In May, 2013, business leaders from the restaurant industry gathered in Chicago for the 2013 National Restaurant Association Show. Here are the best sound bites about leadership from the presentations and discussions by the CEOs of leading and emerging restaurant chains including Firehouse Subs, Corner Bakery, and Argo Tea. Leadership Lessons from the National Restaurant Association […]
04.03.13
Leading Small
brand-as-business bit: “Leadership requires we do small things well.” That gem was one of several I gleaned from Ron Kitchens‘ opening to Catalyst U, a conference I had the privilege of speaking at a couple of months ago. (Other speakers included Cory Booker and Jon Acuff.) Ron describes himself as “Father and Husband. Passionate CEO. […]
brand-as-business bit: For quite awhile now, I’ve been wanting to write a bit with this title, “What Got You There Won’t Get You Here.” It’s a twist on the title of Marshall Goldsmith‘s best selling book, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.” Goldsmith’s premise is that our previous successes often prevent us from achieving more […]
Personal branding is one of those topics that a lot of people talk about but few get it right. Here to set the record straight is branding expert Karen Kang. Karen Kang is the author of Branding Pays: The Five Step System to Reinvent Your Personal Brand, a great new book on why a personal […]
brand-as-business bit: “You can’t have fantastic breakthroughs without frustrating failures.” This is the kind of encouragement we need to hear – and who better to give it than Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who’s personally experienced very public failures (including losing his first mayoral bid) as well as some “fantastic breakthroughs” (including reducing Newark’s crime rate […]
02.19.13
Punch Fear in the Face
brand-as-business bit: “It’s time to punch fear in the face. It’s time to escape average. It’s time to do work that matters. It’s time to start.” Someone who issues statements like these is my kind of person!! And that’s why I was thrilled to hear that someone, Jon Acuff, speak recently. Jon’s the guy behind […]
01.23.13
How to Help Employees Get Strategy
How effective are cascades – you know, those processes by which communication flow down through an organization from the CEO through senior leaders to middle managers to frontline employees? Not very, was the answer in a piece in last month’s Harvard Business Review. […]