People love a good political scandal, and the saga of what may or may not be Congressman Anthony Weiner’s underpants is currently dominating Twitter and the network news circuit. With his story changing by the day, it’s clear the Congressman isn’t done explaining, and that whoever is giving him crisis management advice is going in …

Over the last 20 years numerous business and management authors have identified awareness as a key success factor for leaders. One way to broaden your awareness uses a 4Quadrant approach to frame your perspective, thinking, behavior, decisions, and actions. Unlike the BCG 2×2 matrix, these four quadrants metaphorically capture the four topographies of an organization: …

In response to one of my articles, someone asked me, “Since when did training become part of a company’s success strategy?” Or, something like that. I think it was when companies started giving employees the freedom to control their professional destinies. At least that was when it became necessary. Before then, employees were told every …

One of my coaching clients received feedback that she needed to work on her tone and how she delivered messages. Since these skills are essential leadership skills, she needed new ways to speak more effectively to others. Her first step was to become aware of the specific behaviors that were preventing her from communicating successfully. …

It’s very rare for social enterprises to merge. And when they do, it’s usually because one of them is failing. But let’s consider a situation where impact and sustainability might be enhanced if two successful social enterprises were to merge. Should they?

I really didn’t understand what my number one business value (Lead by Faith: Pray for God’s guidance) meant until I had the great privilege to hear Immaculee Ilibagiza speak in person and then read her book called Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide. When I first heard of Immaculee’s story, …

…With Great Application Instructions Once you decide to apply for a federal grant, you should immediately develop a set of Application Instructions. While every solid grant effort begins with a great kick-off meeting, every successful kick-off meeting begins with a comprehensive set of Application Instructions. What are Application Instructions? When you go on a trip …

Over time, as I heard and experienced similar audience behaviors, I developed and shared the Intervention Escalator, a reminder to start with more subtle interventions, and move toward more extreme responses only as needed. The hope was that presenters could use subtle but active interventions to maintain harmony in meetings, presentations, or training sessions without relying on extreme or unilateral methods.

n multiple recent posts, I discussed techniques for building training that is more likely to result in actual learning. And while I believe that effective training is an investment that will yield a very positive ROI for companies, organizations cannot ignore where the majority of actual learning takes place. The majority of learning in an organization is a result of informal interactions. Employees learn by observation and dialogue with peers, leaders, managers and others. They learn limits by watching reactions of their supervisors and the consequences that come with pushing the limits. It is also within these same interactions with peers, leaders and managers that can make or break the learning transfer after a training session. So while training and HR departments are building programs to develop skill sets or improve performance, the real change happens in the culture. And the culture is built by all those interactions and observations that occur "back on the job."

Here are some ideas I drafted for a debate on gender quotas. I would love to have your feedback: I consider myself to be a professional company director. I am chairman of an ASX listed company, sit on another listed board, am on the board of a company that is planning an IPO, and also …