[How to Improve Your Leadership Skills] “Everything On One Calendar Please”

Just as  former basketball superstar Michael Jordan, investor Warren Buffett, or businessperson Oprah Winfrey wouldn’t handicap themselves by taking their second-string game to work (e.g. imagine Buffett: “No, we just invest in companies whose names begin with M-Z), you want to take your best self to work and life. It means bringing the whole you – not just a part of you – to life.Read the rest

[Ways to Say Thanks] “Great Articles”

There are a number of benefits from working with individuals as an executive coach, and working with start-up and leadership teams as a team coach. Some of them are financial, and some of them are pride in accomplishment.  Some of the benefits are the unexpected thank you’s that make you smile from the inside. Here’s one of the latter:

“Dear Mike,

I was referred to your blog by another former BGIer [Barclays Global Investors – now part of BlackRock].Read the rest

[Life Back West] December 2009 – The Darkest Days

In earlier times, people in the northern hemisphere marked the winter solstice – the time of the year when daylight for the hemisphere is at its shortest – with rites and rituals. Even today those traditions live on with things like the California Revels and their event productions held in Oakland.

This time of year was regarded as marking the sun‘s ebbing presence in the sky, and the deepest moment of the cold winter’s dark.Read the rest

[Tips from a CEO] 3 Things You Can Learn from Nancy McKinstry

There’s a brief Q & A interview with the CEO of Dutch-based firm Wolters Kluwer in the Sunday, December 13, 2009 New York Times. While the title is Managing Globally, And Locally, the insights are more than that: there are rather three other key management lessons that any aspiring senior exec should take to heart.

What are they?

1. CEO McKinstry speaks to the importance the impact of tone (my word) she sets from the top.Read the rest