I am often asked what is the single biggest reason why leaders fail? It could be a lot of reasons. Not playing well in the sand box, having difficulty leading change, wrong strategy come to mind. Based on the work I do with leaders, the single biggest reason I have noticed is the leader’s poor […]

Last night, Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers was one out away from pitching a perfect game in the Major Leagues. There has only been 20 perfect games pitched in the Majors. A perfect game is when a pitcher gets 27 straight outs and no one from the opposing team gets on base; a huge, […]

In today’s Wall Street Journal Nick Timiraos has written an excellent article called Fixing Fannie, Freddie Is a Political Hot Potato. Basically he states that these two mortgage giants are on their way of becoming the largest costs to taxpayers from the financial crisis and that the current governmental leadership is in no hurry to […]

Everything! Emotionally intelligent leaders use genuine gratitude to inspire others and help themselves. So why are leaders not showing enough gratitude? Well it is easy to show gratitude and thankfulness when things are going smoothly and life just handed us a blessing. But faced with the daily demands and challenges of work and life it […]

Everything! Great leadership is serving others and helping them be he best they can be. Over the past several postings I have written about characteristics of a winning formula for success. My postings were inspired by the five characteristics that have made the Butler Bulldogs a consistent high performer in their conference and NCAA basketball […]

I had to write this based on the recent news of Goldman Sachs and the pending law suit with the SEC regarding the allegations that they defrauded customers in selling investments designed to fail. Investments selected by a non disclosed hedge fund trader. The three investors lost over a billion dollars that was ultimately paid […]

The Marine Corp excels in forging new identities for their recruits in 8 short weeks. New recruits are drilled into thinking of themselves not only as a soldier with individual responsibilities, but as a member of a unit; accountable to each other. Semper Fidelis the well know motto for The Marine Corp is Latin for […]

My last message outlined the formula for success for Butler University, “humility, passion, unity, servant hood and thankfulness”. In the coming weeks I will discuss each independently and how each relates to leadership. Each value or trait is part of what I call the DNA of effective leadership. They are interdependent of each other and […]

Here I go again! I can’t help myself with the sports metaphors but its March Madness at the Final Four. In Saturday’s Washington Post, Jim Larranaga the basketball coach who took George Mason to the Final Four a few years ago wrote a beautfiul article on the keys to success at Butler University. It all […]

Is this Leadership or Greed? I know sports metaphors are over used a lot. But I feel compelled to write about Friday’s article in the www.washingtonpost.com sports section by the great writer John Feinstein on the expansion of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. Basically the NCAA Committee wants to expand the tournament from 65 teams […]