Over the past 12 years of my career, I have ruined vacations for nearly an entire generation of my employees. Like it or not, as leaders, people watch, and emulate, what we do. To say the least, my vacation habits have not been the best example. A Journey to Self Awareness Three years ago, my…
Too often our society pits purpose and profit as opposing forces as individuals pitch their camp in one of two extremes. On one side purpose driven zealots rail at the thought of making money and prioritizing financial results. On the other, greed absorbed corporates scoff at the idea of purpose being more than an idealistic…
When Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, went viral, it fueled the resurgence of the purpose driven organization. Of course, the best practice in corporate development has long included the development of mission (and vision and values) as a cultural baseline for strategy. But, as the corporate world has increasingly come to…
I spent this a good part of last week at one of my favorite conferences of the year — Fortune’s BrainstormTech conference. The conference brings together executives from the Media, Technology and Information Services sectors to discuss the state of the industry and various tech trends. Every year I feel like I come away with…
Your reputation matters when it comes to deep personalization In a recent article, Fast Company outlined United’s struggle with deep personalization. The author describes the challenge that Linda Jojo, United’s EVP of Technology and Chief Digital Officer has as she sponsors the development of United’s next generation app. “We’re actually trying to arm our employees…
Several years ago I sat with one of my mentors and asked for his advice. Having been a big time CEO for several decades, I felt like all of our conversations were steeped in lessons learned. But, this time around I wanted to know what he considered to be the one piece of wisdom he…
Most of us don’t know how to take a break. Holidays, vacations, and weekends don’t really give us the down time we need to recharge our batteries, clear our minds and optimize performance. Many of us tend to stay immersed in our work, checking in and staying abreast of what’s going on “back at the…
Email fatigue is one of the most rampant illnesses in America today. It’s a disabling sicknesses that keeps folks continually working and in a state of distraction. It renders folks nearly incapable of deep thinking and rest. It keeps them continually processing the 57 unread and 5324 unarchived emails sitting in their inbox. I know,…
I’ve made it no secret that I’m far from the world’s best networker. In fact, as a raging introvert, I struggle to enjoy your typical glad-handing event. I’ll network, but, it’s not without pain. I have to plan carefully and prepare my mind. I envy those who love to network (and insist they join me…
I laughed out loud this morning as I read a blog from High Scalability that noted “Engineering Cultures Suck at Product.” The author couldn’t be more right and it’s about time that this message becomes mainstream. The reason I decided to build 3Pillar from an independent consultancy into a product development specialist in 2009 is…
