Posted on by

The Loony and the Lost

Somebody named Hendrie Weisinger writes absolute nonsense about leadership on LinkedIn and points out the need to listen to criticism as the key trait in leaders (the subject of his work, of course). When I point out leaders who didn’t take criticism but who did very well for the shareholders (e.g., Steve Jobs, Jack Welch) he points out that they weren’t very nice people, Welch had affairs, and Apple is fine without jobs! Moreover, he gets defensive because…..wait for it….he …

Posted on by

Credit Where Due

The Social Security Administration is a wonderful surprise among government bureaucracies. The “hold” times are brief on the phone, the agents are incredibly helpful and knowledgeable, and the web site is intelligent and informative. Is there any way they can take over the DMV?

Posted on by

Half Full or Half Empty

I hear a great many people complaining about the difficulties of publishing today, yet I see a many people successfully doing it. I always ask myself, “Is anyone doing this anywhere in any way?” If the answer is yes, then stop whining and do it yourself. Publishing is not what is once was. There use to be a bevy of editors who would work on content, style, make recommendations, fine-tune the text. And there were marketing channels and collaboration. Today, …

Posted on by

Hello? Hello?

Bear in mind that the value is in being highly responsive, not instantly reachable. You’ll screw up your life if your cell phone number is in thousands of hands and those people feel they have the right to call at any time, and you enable them by taking the call. I walked away from a guy who took a call while we were talking at a convention. The person in front of you is the important one. Brain surgery, perhaps, can’t wait for …

Posted on by

Providence: The Incompetence of Small Numbers

Rhode Island has well under a million adults. Providence, the capital, is by far the largest city and the Greater Providence Area probably has about 400,000 people. But the state has almost 20 geopolitical jurisdictions, so it needs 20 chiefs of police, fire chiefs, head librarians, superintendents of schools, mayors/city managers, and so on. Almost every week it seems as if a member of the state legislature or Providence city council is charged, indicted, and/or convicted of crimes, from not …

Posted on by

Podcast – The Uncomfortable Truth – Episode 10: Overkill

“Pounding away until the point is crushed under the weight of redundancy.” Transcript: Welcome to the Uncomfortable Truth, today we’re talking about overkill. You ever hear anyone say that someone else is belaboring the point? A woman was trying to explain a bill to me the other day and I understood what she was saying and I said, “Okay, that’s good.”  Yet she kept telling me and I said, “I’ve got it, I’ll pay it.”, and she said, “No, let …