Managing Yourself

Elvis Costello keeps singing in my head. “What so hard about peace, love and understanding?” It starts me thinking about today’s topic: What’s so hard about asking a question?  Why Is Question Asking Important? In my practice as a Vistage Chair, I use a Socratic approach with my members, asking…

A Blinding Flash of the Not So Obvious Frank, is the founder and owner of WidgetsRUs which is 20 years old and in perpetual growth mode. Frank is a typical entrepreneur; optimistic and full of ideas. To finance growth, Widgets needs cash; lots of it. Before the last recession, Frank…

  For many reasons, CEO’s find themselves doing work that others can and should be doing.  That’s not the mistake that I will discuss here, though. This blog will focus on mistakes leaders make when they attempt to delegate work but actually abdicate it. Most Common Scenario:  Over his morning…

I believe that the health of company is directly related to the health of it’s leader. Therefore, my primary strategy, as a Vistage Chair, is to help my members learn and grow so that they can become better leaders. I became a Vistage Chair, I wanted to supplement my business…

Empathic Listening When I first became a Vistage Chair several years ago, I thought I already had good listening skills.  I was wrong.  Since then, I have become convinced that if everyone knew how to truly listen, relationships and businesses would vastly improve.  Let’s briefly explore listening. Understanding others would…

Self Mastery-Busting the Personality Barrier We’ve all experienced the leader who knows everything.  The successful, unaware individual who has not experienced failure and has had no reason to let go of past ideas and change his behavior.  As a result, his frame of mind shuts down learning and listening, prevents new…