Back by popular demand… The 2018 PNC Christmas Price index puts the price of purchasing all of the gifts for each day of the twelve days of Christmas at $170,609.46 (up 0.5% from last year). Holiday time can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be for good leaders. The following list contains gifts that will last a lifetime. Best… (read more)

REPOST from Feb, 2017 – This problem seems to be getting worse rather than better. ————————————————————————————– Warren Buffet recently released his annual investor letter. It was twenty-nine pages long. It was refreshing to see. In a world where we increasingly hear that we must be brief due to decreased attention spans, Buffet chose to go with substance. I believe… (read more)

Conversation has become war.  Just look at the headlines: Man destroys anti-abortion argument with a simple question Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez DESTROYS Conservative Troll Massive research analysis destroys conservative argument against letting trans people transition Professor ‘Totally Destroys’ Student In This Email After He Asks For A Grade Bump Law Professor Absolutely Destroys Student Letter Protesting Her… (read more)

Recently I started going to a new person to cut my hair.  Her name is Karen Messina. As we got started, Karen asked me what number clipper blade I used on my sides.  I told I used a #1, the shortest blade. Karen provided a quick bit of hair stylist wisdom. “How about if I… (read more)

There is an old piece of conventional wisdom regarding leadership. Encourage your employees to act like owners. The idea seems good on the surface. An owner would ideally have more connection and engagement with his or her business. This would hopefully lead to decisions that are more centered around the business’s success. However, even the strongest connection… (read more)

A client once asked me to review an article that she wanted to use in a course on managing virtual teams.  The article was from a very well-known magazine.  It provided ten tips for managing virtual teams: Be available Organize regular meetings with both individuals and the whole team Encourage informal conversations Rotate (team members to different locations) Be creative with… (read more)

There is an old saying that what you measure is what you get. The problem is that what you’ve got isn’t always what you measure. In other words, there might be things falling below the radar simply because you aren’t measuring them. There is a simple example of this in the book Jurassic Park. The island… (read more)

I recently read a quote from Jeff Bezos where he said that when anecdotal data and quantitative data don’t match, usually the quantitative is wrong. I thought that was interesting. However, it’s an issue that many of us deal with on a regular basis. It’s hard to trust cold impersonal numbers when what you see with your… (read more)

The other day while walking my dog I noticed a mailbox leaning toward the street. As I continued the walk, I suddenly became aware that about 1/3 of the mailboxes on our route were leaning. We’ve lived in our house for nearly twenty years. I’m pretty sure that when we moved in, most mailboxes stood straight… (read more)