I was the CEO of a hotel company for two dozen years. We started with one bankrupt, no-tell motel and grew to a vibrant hospitality company with 38 hotels. Now, I'm on the other side of the counter... I'm the guest. And, I just spent five weeks on the road,...

Self-actualization? Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs pyramid with "being all you can be" at the top (co-opted by the U.S. Army as a marketing slogan) was a wake-up call for Americans in the 1950s when personal behavior and goals were so influenced by predominant societal ways. Abe's humanistic psychology theory...

Recently, I had the good fortune of attending a daylong conference in Ecuador with 300 South American businesspeople all focused on "Transcendar Par Ganar," transcending to win. I gave a speech at the start and at the end of the day, but my primary role was to listen to how...

"Should I go to business school?" I hear this question all the time. There's not an easy answer as there are so many variables that are unique to each person. But, more and more, I'm giving a simple piece of advice to those who ask. I don't know whether getting...

Given the hoopla associated with the upcoming Facebook IPO, it's almost become conventional wisdom to suggest Mark Zuckerberg is the model of the 21st-century CEO. While Zuckerberg's talents and entrepreneurial intuition are immense, it's too early to bestow that label on him yet. Let's see how he gets seasoned as...

Why don't we "practice" business? I've come to realize that -- unlike medicine and law -- we don't think of our profession as business leaders as a "practice." A few years ago, in the last downturn, I developed the principles of PEAK as an alternative operating model for my business...

Are you a workaholic or a "work-a-frolic"? The term "workaholism" is now 40 years old, but the average American works 200 more hours per year today than they did when this word was first coined. Spend a day and maybe an evening watching someone intensely dedicated to their...

I sip my lemongrass tea and watch with divine curiosity. Like hundreds of thousands of her fellow island people, the elderly Balinese woman places a series of daily morning offerings (known as "Canang Sari") at strategic places around the home. The tropical scent of frangipani and incense wafts throughout the...

Has Anxiety become your middle name? No doubt we're living through unpredictable times and this is taking a toll on our physical and emotional health. This is becoming most pronounced in the context of the workplace, which is having disastrous impacts on employee engagement and such prized qualities as innovation...

Years ago, young Lana Turner skipped her typing class and bought a Coke at the Top Hat Café in Hollywood where she was discovered by the publisher of the Hollywood Reporter and soon became a celebrated movie star. A couple decades later in a hilarious episode of I Love Lucy,...

The psychology of confidence is just as important in the boardroom as the bedroom. As Wikipedia suggests, "Confidence can be a self-fulfilling prophecy as those without it fail or don't try because they lack it and those with it may succeed because they have it rather than because...

I entered Stanford Business School twenty-nine years ago as a naive twenty-one year old, the youngest in my class. One of my classmates immediately sized me up, asking "So, what did you specialize in before coming to get your MBA?" I said, "Growing up." Not satisfied with my answer, he...

If we're going to see a job recovery in this decade, it's likely to come from America's entrepreneurs since 60 to 80 percent of the net job growth in our economy comes from small to mid-size businesses. So, if we know our economic recovery depends on incubating more...

To B or not to B? Hamlet is not the only one asking that question as I've been queried many times by readers of my book PEAK about whether the self-actualizing business principles I espouse are just as relevant to B2B (business to business) as they are to B2C companies...

Executives execute. We don't execute people as in life and death matters (although, sadly, we do "terminate" people when they're no longer needed), but we have traditionally thought of business leaders as being emotionless technicians who just keep the trains running on time. But, timely trains didn't make Southern Pacific...

Henry Ford complained, "Why is it when I need a pair of hands, I have to get the whole man as well?" Sorry, Henry, that's how it works.

When my father was in the midst of strenuous management-labor negotiations he would say to me as a kid, "I love business,...

'Tis the time of the year to reflect and project. I'm going to take my cue from the most famous management theorist of all time, Peter Drucker, who lived to the ripe old age of 95. This leadership guru incorporated two practices into his professional and personal life...

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is "What are your favorite business books of all-time?" That's a tough question to answer. It's sort of like "What's your favorite color?" The fact I like purple doesn't mean I'm going to buy a purple business suit, nor does it...

A half-century ago, few would have suggested that the world's companies might have a bigger impact on the planet than would the various governments of the world. But, today, there's no doubt that business -- for better or often worse -- impacts our lives in more and more profound ways,...

This is my favorite rhetorical business question of all time spoken by the true sage of management wisdom, Peter Drucker. But, this is a more complex question than it used to be. There may have been a time when the ball bearings manufacturer was purely in the business...