Leadership
What are your blind spots? It’s a difficult question to answer, because, of course, your blind spots are the inner barriers you don’t see. They’re the stories you tell yourself that hold you back: “My work isn’t valuable.” “Who am I to give this talk?” “I’
Leadership
When Tom Peters speaks, I listen. His book Re-imagine! was the first business book to truly capture my imagination and ignite the engines. It changed my world. I only wish I’d followed his advice more than I have. In his latest book, The Excellence Dividend, Peters is once again
Company Culture
Leadership
When working with new coaching clients, I tend to model the approach of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland with his challenging question: “Who are you?” The vast majority of us tend take the answer for granted. Yet the truth is—whether you’re an experienced CEO, an emerging leader,
New Kind News
It’s been said music is a time machine. You hear a certain song and immediately you’re transported back to a specific place and moment in time. Place and space hold the same power for me. The dirt road leading to my grandparents home. A certain Central Park bench.
Company Culture
For “old kind” leaders, leadership was a known entity. Leaders were powerful. Their organizations ran like well-oiled machines—efficient and productive. They followed best practices, knew all the answers and pointed the way. They created the vision and determined the strategy. And they told others what to do. The old
Company Culture
Dylan had it right: the times, they are a a changin'. The business landscape today has fostered widespread disruption and change at unprecedented scale—how will you choose to react? What steps can leaders take to help their teams embrace change as a driver of creativity and innovation? New
Leadership
Here’s a scary thought. The world may never again be as calm and predictable as it is today. We are living in the future Alvin Toffler predicted in his 1970s book "Future Shock." But you knew that already. With change comes new technology. New distractions. Constant dinging,
Uncategorized
We’re only a couple of weeks away from this year’s Hopscotch Design Festival and folks have been asking me for guidance. Our speakers’ perspectives on design are broad, deep, and intelligent with an eye on the ever-changing nature and strategic future of the profession. I don’t know
Leadership
“Are we ready to lead?” I was delighted to hear Julie Anixter pose this question in her opening remarks earlier this month to 300 designers who’d gathered in my hometown of Raleigh for the annual AIGA Leadership Retreat. AIGA is the largest professional association of designers in the world
Leadership
There is a paradox about leadership. On one hand, it is always in flux. Jennifer Morgan, President of SAP North America captured the new reality recently when she noted that “change has never moved this fast and it will never be as slow again.” Not only is change ever present,
Storytelling
There’s something primal about the rhythm of Johnny Cash’s songs. It’s easy to take them for granted because they seem so simple. At the core, however, they’re anything but. There’s an authenticity that's as familiar as it is true. Yet there’s a