Leadership is not a position. You can’t be assigned or appointed to be a leader. Leadership is not about what your business card says, what your title is, or where you sit on the organizational chart in your company. Leadership is a posture, it is a decision that you want to have influence over others [...]

How many times in an average week will you hear someone utter these sentiments: It’s not my job! It was not my fault. What can I do about it? It is bigger than me. I wish someone would do something about that. My belief is that the more a person or organization focuses on the [...]

It was just a normal school day in September of 2007 at Central Kings Rural High School in the small community of Cambridge, Nova Scotia. A grade nine student, in his first year at the school, wore a pink shirt to school. A few bullies roughed him up a bit, called him a homosexual for [...]

Dennis Bakke, the former CEO of AES Corporation, lead one of the largest power companies in the world for many years. The company had a simple but powerful vision: “To create the most fun work environment since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.” One of the cornerstones of Bakke’s leadership at AES was creating an [...]

What are the five most powerful words for engaging others? All of us want to engage others whether they are team members, clients, or even those in our personal lives. Over the years I have discovered that there are five words that create significant engagement at work. The five words are: I am proud of [...]

What separates the great from the good? Is it vision, attitude, aptitude, luck? After twenty years advising over 600 companies and thousands of leaders, my conclusion is that discipline is a critical and overlooked factor in driving real change in our life and companies. My definition of discipline is simple: “Organizational and personal disciplines are [...]

I am just back from four amazing days teaching and connecting with over 150 social entrepreneurs at the Social Venture Institute at Hollyhock Retreat Center outside of Vancouver, BC. What is a social entrepreneur? These are business owners who are creating and running mostly for profit businesses where doing well and doing good sit side [...]

As many of you know, I am spending all of August in Uganda working with a non-profit organization named Bead for Life which has helped thousands of women start businesses while leaving a life of poverty behind. Day after day I have been inspired and challenged by the stories of these women, many of whom [...]

If anyone doubted the impact of corporations on society just take a close look at the last two years. The decisions of large financial institutions to leverage risky assets nearly caused a second Great Depression leading to a massive bailout by governments. That bailout has lead to huge government debt and threatens now to cause what many feared-“the double dip.” Few financial firms took real responsibility for the carnage suggesting for the most part that “everyone” was doing it.