I wasn’t sure if crickets lived in the deserts of the Middle East, but I fully expected to hear them if they did. This probably won’t come as a surprise, but that’s seldom the goal for a keynote speaker, and it wasn’t my goal at the Leaders in Dubai Conference in the United Arab Emirates. This was one of those big-time conferences that every keynote speaker wants to work. The other presenters incl...

Standing as the keynote speaker in a room filled with CEOs and board chairs can feel a little like being a matador in a bullfight – it seems like a great idea until you’re actually there. Fortunately, the CEOs and board chairs at the CUES symposium were of the friendly variety. No horns, or, as they call them in American rodeo, no clown stabbers. These were hard-working, smart leaders eager to learn and looki...

A pessimist found an optimist doing some yard work and started a conversation with his good-natured friend. “Last year was awful,” he said. “What do you think 2017 will bring?” “I think it will bring flowers,” said the smiling optimist. “Really,” said the pessimist. “What makes you think that?” “Because I’m planting flowers,” the optim...

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh was spot-on when he advised entrepreneurs to “chase the vision, not the money” because by doing so “the money will end up following you.” But as anyone who’s ever tried to finance their great idea knows, the money still needs some help leaping into your bank account so you can put it to work. The money that’s “following you” is coming from the &ldqu...

Love. It’s just damn good business. I know this to be true. I also understand a broader reality: Many leaders don’t buy it. Even if they agree in spirit, they reject the idea in practice. They think it is idealistic, naive, and impractical. So they don’t spend much time cultivating love at work. Where do they focus? Technology. A recent study by Korn Ferry found that 63 percent of the 800 leade...

Well-intentioned friends used to tell Elise Mitchell that the journey is more important than the destination. She never bought it. And with good reason. By nature, she’d always been a destination leader–one who was hyper-focused on the goal, the desired end result of her business. And it paid off. She built a public relations company from scratch in the northwest corner of Arkansas beginning in 1995 and so...

In 1994, Mary Miller and her husband, Tony, decided to grow their cleaning company. They hired a consultant to help show them the way. Two days later, the consultant fired them. “I can’t help you,” he told Mary, the CEO of Cincinnati-based JANCOA Janitorial Services. “You’ve got a people problem: You don’t have enough of them.” He pointed out that he was supposed to spend the...

Mitch Luciano had worked for Trailer Bridge for three years, and things weren’t going well for the Florida-based logistics company. They had churned through three CEOs in as many years, and the business was generating about a one percent annual return on investment. They needed to turn things around, and they needed to do it fast. In 2014 the company’s board moved Luciano into the president role (he didn&r...

The rise and fall and rise again of the metal band Twisted Sister is a legend-worthy story in the rock music industry. But when the lights go down and the amplifiers go silent, there’s also an unexpected business tale from which any entrepreneur can learn a few lessons. Twisted Sister is perhaps best known for the persona of frontman Dee Snider and classic hits like “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and &...

More than 30 years ago, a young police officer named Chris Van Gorder was nearly killed while responding to a domestic dispute. The city retired him from law enforcement and he spent the n ext year in and out of hospitals. While he describes the day he was injured as “the worst day his life,” Van Gorder unexpectedly discovered his passion for healthcare in the very hospital that treated him, and he went to...