I mean no disrespect here, but my bet is, based on my experience and observation, that you don’t completely finish your projects. The lack of completion comes on two levels. You give up before the finish line, and you put the finish line at the wrong place. What do I mean?  We set a finish

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If you make a list of leaders who have made a difference – whether the list is global and historical, or local and recent – you will find they all have one thing in common. Those leaders are bold. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines bold in part with these three definitions: not afraid of danger or

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It’s become almost an industry itself – judging organizational culture and creating lists of great places to work. The most recent I’ve read is from Glassdoor, as reported in FAST Company Online this morning. The findings and lists are worth reading, but perhaps not surprisingly, I want to talk about how we as leaders can

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Physicians take the Hippocratic Oath before they can practice medicine. Lawyers take a professional oath after they pass the bar. And people elected to all sorts of positions take an oath of office. Considering how important the leader’s role is in communicating change effectively, and how poorly many leaders do it, I am proposing an

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The world lost a great statesman, visionary, leader, and human being yesterday. The work and legacy of Nelson Mandela will be in full view of the world for the rest of history. It is only fitting that I share a quotation from this great man today, about two topics near to my heart, and I’m

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It’s becoming as big a tradition as the Thanksgiving holiday itself – the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. And this year, many stores have started or will start earlier than Friday morning with their sales. I’m not a fan of waiting in long lines, and not everything I want or want to give can

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The truth is there is probably as much training available on project management as there is on any leadership topic or skill I could ever write about here. Don’t believe me? Google it. There is plenty of training available, plenty of experience with it, plenty of knowledge available. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee that we are all

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Everyone has heard it – the old saying we have two ears and one mouth, and we should use them in that proportion . . . We’ve heard it, but we seldom take action on the idea. It isn’t really because we don’t know how to listen or even that we don’t understand the value

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Everyone is about to move from the reception to the big business dinner. You are walking with some friends and colleagues, following the crowd as you pass the restrooms. Just ahead of you is one of the executives walking as confidently as they normally do, because they can’t see what you see – that they

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One way to become more effective at anything is to reflect on your progress, your results and your approaches. Another key to building your skills (but also your confidence and awareness), is to see how your results and experiences compare to others. Organizations do it all the time and call it “benchmarking”, yet as individuals,

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