Jan. 21 marks the 216th anniversary of France's King Louis XVI being guillotined for, in effect, being a lousy chief executive officer. If Louis' modern-day, private-sector counterparts don't quickly change their "let them eat cake" ways, many will share the same fate--figuratively, if not literally. Do I hear the echo...

Just as predictable as the crystal ball dropping in Times Square, January media fills pages and airtime with advice and suggestions for resolutions to begin anew. Every year I hear a litany of well-intentioned resolutions from friends and clients: clean the closet, lose 10 pounds, take tango lessons, get home...

This month as Americans we will celebrate Thanksgiving while still reeling from the most challenging month of economic turmoil in more than a generation. Credit markets are collapsing, jobs are disappearing, 401K plans are eroding, and our leaders seem unable to move from dramatic and expensive "rescue" plans to stabilization....

The world has been captured by the high stakes drama of Wall Street's bad dream, and the cascading reports of bad news on companies, eroding capital markets, the legacy of greed, big debts and mounting foreclosures, and the threat of our global financial system slipping into panic. As I write...

Nancy, my dearest wife of thirty years, died suddenly on August 8th. I discovered her at night when I returned from the airport, just two hours after our regular "it's on time, my love" call from Denver. She died without being able to say goodbye. In the dark forest of...

Do you have a destination in mind? Are you clear about the outcome you hope to achieve? Have you taken the time to engage and enroll your fellow travelers in your expectations? Do they share a vivid picture of what's ahead? Is there a map to get you there?

Leaders...

Are you happy? Would you know if you were?

Has your definition of happiness changed as you've grown older and more successful? Is it about accumulation, more toys, more exotic travel, new experiences, more of what you thought you wanted? Is all of that making you happy? Or, as...

When I first met my wife, it wasn't "love at first sight" but I knew with a kind of knowing that we were kindred spirits, that we could grow to love one another. I had an instinct that wouldn't waver. (I confess it took me a bit of time to...

I feel assaulted by the unrelenting television, radio and print commercials for the race to the White House, but yesterday I voted in a local primary election in a simple elementary school classroom. We all stood in line to vote the privilege of being able to participate in a democracy...

The raw energy of interaction spawns and sparks great conversations and fuels business opportunities and growth. It just takes the decision to engage. In our newly (and accurately) coined recession economy, it's certainly not business as usual anywhere.

It's time to sort for some genuinely inspiring role models.

In our Practice, we often focus our client's attention on the "doing-ness" of their work, and the subtle subtext, in beliefs and behavior, that animate their actions. In all of this work, I am struck that we don't spend more time helping our colleagues and clients take more pleasure...

What a week! Oil prices hit a new record with gas prices prodding people to a Prius, "Mr. Clean" Spitzer again surrenders to the seduction of power, informed by bouts of narcissism and obsessive-compulsive behavior, and we finally "get" that we are in a recession.

We need a laugh....

Over the past few months I have been struck by the velocity of popular articles on praise, happiness and the collective indulgence of the twenty-somethings who seem to have their own rules and expectations. FORTUNE Magazine recently featured a cover story, "Manage Us? Puh-leeze" with the subtitle, "You raised them,...

This has been a rough week in the markets with many of us watching our investments go South while a fragile coalition of our national political leaders posture and plan a stimulus plan that we'll have to pay for down the line. The bickering and name calling in the primaries...

The New Year is still fresh and 2008 feels a bit like a new suit that doesn't quite fit.

Each New Year offers me the chance to clean out the clutter and try on something new.

I've spent two weeks tossing out stale files, sorting through old books, forgotten papers,...

How about this year you change the pattern and don't make that long list of resolutions, but instead consider peeling back what you thought about change for yourself...in your eating, exercise, or in your life?

Some of us are kicked into life's surprises, and into changes in our professional lives...

Three weeks ago I watched as they hung the huge crystal decoration at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan while hundreds of pre-holiday shoppers crushed the sidewalks. All over the country newspapers are loaded with special sales, flush with inserts on holiday concerts, tree-lighting ceremonies and...