Do your co-workers have that "Deer In The Headlines" look today? Today, and likely this week, you have a choice:  Obsess on the Wall Street crisis or focus on a project that will make a difference over the long haul.  I doubt that there's little in between. Me personally, I'm going to focus my efforts …

An economic recession is a retraction phase in the business cycle. In short, it’s a period when the economy stops growing. In the current case, the retraction probably started late last year and should last through the middle of next year, although this is a point of great debate. Economic recessions are usually induced by …

I read all the comments that you post. All of them. One my this blog’s readers, Chris Bonney, responded to a 2007 post, Outlaw Chicken Little Thinking, with an astute observation: “I attended a two-day PM class at the University of Chicago where several attendees called these very people Fire Starters: Adding value by creating …

Today, I’m speaking at a job recruiting event for my good friends at Career Builder. I’m talking abou the importance of social responsibility and purpose in retaining and motivating talent. To illustrate its long term truth, I’m telling the Christopher Wren story. Here’s a video, where you can check it out too. Talk to your …

Check out this video interview (It’s all about the body language), where a stock market analyst calls out body language as a key indicator of a CEO’s optimism about his or her company. Do you send the right ‘visual’ signals? This jives with my earlier post that talks about how people actually decode you based …

If you want to assert your leadership, have the courage to make yourself easy to find (with complaints, feedback, etc.). That’s exactly what Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint, is doing in the company’s new national ad campaign. At the conclusion of the ad, you see the graphic: dan@sprint.com. Tell me that this won’t cause his …

In my line of work, finding the ultimate definition of leadership is to find the holy grail. I’ve heard an assortment of good definitions over the years, but during a mid-May interview with USA Today, AMEX CEO Kenneth Chenault came up with the best one I’ve heard so far. For his definition, he took words …

A Japanese study confirms something I’ve been preaching for a few years: People would rather receive authentic praise than cash. Sure, when you need money only money will do. But in most cases, the lack of praise can cause someone to quit a well paying job. The takeaway from this study is that you need …