This Friday, I have the privilege to be hosting Rich Sheridan for our monthly CEO/Leaders Connect event at Zingerman’s Roadhouse. I have had the pleasure of knowing Rich since he began his company, Menlo Innovations, over 10 years ago. It has grown from a small storefront on 4th Avenue to a whole floor at Tally Hall on Liberty. He has been honored as Entrepreneur of the Year, and the company has helped launch multiple businesses in the community. …
This week, two Michigan based companies have been receiving headlines for the same issue: adherence to core values. For one, General Motors, the news has been bad. For the other, Zingerman’s, the news has been exceptionally positive. In the General Motors case, their CEO Mary Barra, was quoted at congressional hearings as saying: “GM’s crisis has emerged not from the errors of a few errant bureaucrats, but from a company wide failure of character…We had more of a cost …
Recently, I have helped several people make job changes. In all cases, they had one thing in common: They were able to leverage their connections to secure the new job. This is no surprise to me. I so strongly believe in the importance of connection that when I created my business 15 years ago, I called it “Leaders Connect”. Additionally, each month I hold a networking event, called Leaders Connect Breakfast, which we always start with active networking. Each …
For a variety of reasons, I often suggest to my clients that they learn to meditate and develop a practice of mindfulness. I have found that through meditation, one learns to focus attention, control negative thoughts, and achieve peacefulness. Often, my clients are overwhelmed with how difficult they believe meditation can be. As a way to get started, I offer them a simple method that I learned years ago from the book “How to Meditate” by Eknath Easwaran. By devoting …
From my experience, as an organizational psychologist, I have learned and emphasize the following: To manage is to coach. To coach is to lead. Great leaders are first and foremost great coaches. This view point of leadership is well illustrated in Gary Magenta’s great new book “The Un-Bossy Boss”. Gary, who is the Vice President at Root Learning, will be our guest speaker at this Fridays Leaders Connect. He is featured this month in Entrepreneur Magazine, and has this …
Last night, a beautiful Kenyan woman, Lupita Nyong’o, not only won an academy award for her portrayal of a slave, but she also gave the most inspiring speech I have heard in a long time. She thanked her mother, for telling her she was beautiful even though as a young girl growing up in Mexico she felt ugly compared to her lighter skinned classmates. In an earlier speech, given at the Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon, she said “And …