Continuous Improvement: A Fighter Pilot’s Culture of Performance

Companies of any size can reap the rewards of a fighter pilot’s Culture of Performance by driving a culture focused on performance and execution. A rapidly changing environment isn’t a phenomenon that only fighter pilots face.  Increasing health, energy, and education costs combined with increasing global competition, developing a strong Culture of Performance is essential…

Executive Presence: What is It & How to Get It

In the opening scene of the legendary film Casablanca, an employee walks intently through the casino with a piece of paper in hand. The employee arrives at a table and reaches across to hand the paper to an unseen recipient. All the viewer can see is the recipient writing his signature authorizing a payment of 1,000…

Leadership for the Business Battlefield

Leadership for the Business Battlefield

“Man down! Heat casualty! Candidate, get his temperature!  Now! Get a measurement! “Roger that, sir.  He’s hot, 104.” “Corpsman!  Quickly, we have a possible heat stroke here!” This emergency unfolded during a field exercise more than 20 years ago at Officer CandidateSchool at the United States Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. We were training in full combat gear on a muggy, 95 degree day…

telling

“So – Are you telling me you’re going out of business…?”

This is a question that I recently felt compelled to flat-out ask a COO of a publicly traded Fortune 500 company in response to a series of comments he made to me during an engagement interview. His shocked response was, “Of course not…!” There was obviously a disconnect someplace. To be sure, we are living…