Some thoughts on the future of the MBA
Read moreWhen the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD.org) invited me to speak at their 2013 MBA conference in Lausanne on March 18, I was somewhat surprised, and also flattered. EFMD is an interesting organization whose fundamental objective is to raise the standard of management education worldwide. According to the general information on their website, they seek to provide an international
Reflecting on the power of mythic stories and legends
Read moreAn early iPhone call: This week, I read a story in Fast Company about the first public phone call made from an iPhone, which happened on January 9, 2007. From the stage of the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where he was unveiling the new “insanely great” product, Steve Jobs opened Google Maps, searched for Starbucks, and called a nearby store.
Storytelling as learned behavior: the unusual example of Abraham Lincoln
Read moreOne of the questions I am most often asked in my seminars and public speaking concerns the charismatic speaker. Are great orators born or made? For me, after some twenty years of coaching and observing leaders, of teaching seminars throughout the world, and of studying the characteristics of effective communication, this has become an easy question to answer. The “gifted”
How Abraham Lincoln mastered the art of storytelling:
Read moreWith my coaching clients and in my leadership seminars, whenever I speak of the central role that personal stories can play in a leader’s communication, I am invariably asked if storytelling is more a natural gift or a learned behavior. As we have seen previously (in the entries of October 12, October 29, and December 10, for example), a growing
Abraham Lincoln’s remarkable leadership
Read moreLately, I have been reading quite a bit about the great (many would say greatest) American president, Abraham Lincoln. Along with my co-author Patricia Ward Biederman, I have been searching for examples of Lincoln’s storytelling, as he was a master at using his personal stories of identity. In addition, the press has turned its attention to this great man again
Should we all focus more on learning to ask questions?
Read moreThe concept of asking questions seems to be following me around lately. Several weeks ago, I read an article by Shane Snow in Fast Company: Click here Then, I went to have coffee with my neighbor, who told me I absolutely had to read a recent nonfiction book by well-known French journalist Bernard Pivot entitled Oui, mais quelle est la