Leadership news and views culled from the world wide web.
Got Millennials? Then you need Sh*t Sandwich. Bar none, Sh*t Sandwich is the must-have book if you’ve got people in your life (children, coworkers, employees) who think the world owes them everything and/or that life should be fair. I know, I wrote it. The advice in Sh*t Sandwich is simple to follow and easy […]
Previously, I wrote about how I Will Never Own a Self-Driving Car (and Neither will You). In that post, I discussed why self-driving cars would not only become a reality, but how the leaders in this industry (folks like Google and Apple) will likely capitalize on this revolution. At the end of that article, […]
In case you haven’t heard the news, there’s a current job opening in automotive that none of my peers will even consider: CEO of TrueCar (NASDAQ: TRUE). Most everyone I’ve spoken with about the role calls it a sure career-ender; a poisonous position that will turn even the most respected leader into an industry […]
(WARNING: Salty language ahead. Do not continue reading if you plan to complain about the choice of words used in this post – they were chosen with great care to evoke a very specific meaning. Originally published by The Manager on LinkedIn.) Nobody likes a know-it-all. Nobody. I’m not talking about the know-it-alls who actually […]
You do know you’re wrong about Tesla, right? I don’t even need to hear your opinions about the electric carmaker to tell you that you’re wrong about Tesla. You’re dead wrong. How do I know you’re wrong about Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) without even hearing what you have to say? Because, if you’re like 99% of […]
“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” While this is actually a misquote of Ralph Waldo Emerson from the nineteenth century, the phrase is an affirmation of the power of innovation and a confirmation that hard work and great ideas will be rewarded by the marketplace. Fast forward […]
If you have more than a few connections on LinkedIn, then you’ve surely been exposed to the most asinine website dedicated to UGC since CompanyNameSucks.com: mixtent.com. (You’ll have to learn why CompanyNameSucks.com is asinine all on your own, I’m going to use the rest of this blog to tell you why I think you should […]
Leadership Lessons from Cash for Clunkers Without diving too deeply into a mini controversy from last week, let me just enlighten you with some quick facts: Edmunds.com estimated that the recent Cash for Clunkers program cost US taxpayers about $24,000 per incremental vehicle sold; The chief economist of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) […]
Cash for Clunkers: What we can learn about Leadership from Bureaucrats? Whether you agree or disagree that the US Government should be in the business of incentivizing the populace to buy new cars, the fact is that the so-called “cash for clunkers” program simply demonstrates that our government, like all governments, does not employ an […]
Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit Argh! I can hear my mother misquoting Vince Lombardi in my sleep: “Quitters never win, and winners never quit.” A simple saying that forced me to keep my word throughout my life – even when it cost me money. Why is it these simple clichés can hold such […]
Leadership Lessons from the Public Sector There are reasons some people are lifelong public servants and others work in the real world. Whether it’s the military, public education, a state legislature or a municipal government: a job void of profit responsibility is generally void of any true accountability. Without accountability, leadership can become unnecessary and […]
Lessons on Leadership and Humanity from Arne Duncan As we wrote last month in our post about local school administrators: “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, become administrators.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is the administrator of all administrators. On Tuesday, Secretary Duncan was in Denver […]
Leadership and the Bully Pulpit Michael Jackson (no, not that Michael Jackson) loves the bully pulpit. AutoNation’s Michael Jackson, we’ll call him the “non-gloved-one,” is everywhere these days. Officially, he serves as the CEO of the largest automotive dealer group in the US. Unofficially, he serves as the primary spokesperson for all curmudgeons who are […]
Circuit City – We Told You So… In what was probably the easiest call in the last ten years, we told you Circuit City was going to go all the way (read our November 12, 2008 post if you don’t believe us). Back then we said you shouldn’t “be fooled by their reorganization plans; Circuit […]
Best of the Leadership Development Blogosphere We scoured the Leadership Development posts and articles for the past several weeks to find just those precious few that deserve your attention: Are Leaders Born Or Made? Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan studied the progress of 88000 managers who had been to leadership development training. The people […]
Leading in the New Millennium: Pay for (Lack of) Performance “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair Although Sinclair’s words were uttered in 1935, they ring especially true when applied to the leadership void we face today. While Sinclair, a […]
Brett “Cuatro” Favre and the Leadership Lesson of Humility When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. The best thing to do is admit it. We are certainly humble enough to admit it. At the beginning of the 2008 NFL season we predicted that the New York Jets would finish the season no better than 8-8… we were […]
Freakonomics: The Movie During my extended time off between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I sat down with accomplished entrepreneur and filmmaker Chad Troutwine to discuss the most ambitious documentary ever to pique the interest of the editors of AskTheManager.com. For those of you unfamiliar with Chad’s work, he is a founder (along with Markus Moberg) of […]
More Leadership Lessons from Delta Airlines In a recent post, we admonished Delta Airlines for the ill-conceived, confusing Delta Breezeway enacted in late 2007. It seemed that even months after its introduction, most Delta gate agents and Delta frequent fliers still had no idea how to use them. We are proud to say that between […]
Why Detroit Deserved Their Bailout… (We understand we’re a little late to the party, but we were on hiatus during the whole Auto Bailout mess, and we felt we would be remiss if we didn’t provide our two cents.) While there is no doubt that the Detroit automakers sowed many of the seeds of their […]