The currency of leadership is credibility! Collins & Porras articulated this clearly and forcefully  in their 1994 book, “Built to Last”. Draw the ‘credibility’ account down too low and you risk losing your team, and quite possibly your job. So how does one maintain a strong ‘credibility’ current-ratio?  The answer is simple…learn how to use your V.O.I.C.E.  This simple acronym will help you remember the fundamentals of credibility that inform the attitudes and habits of successful Conscious Leaders: [Read more…]

Not since Leo XIII spoke of the dangers of unfettered greed in “Rerum Novarum” in 1891, has a Pontiff made so clear a call for business to serve the needs of all.  In his new APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION, EVANGELII GAUDIUM  Pope Francis warns of a ‘New Tyranny’ of unfettered Capitalism and the idolatry of money.  He encourages us to work for the creation of an economic system which serves rather that rules. [Read more…]

Since childhood we have all heard stories about why and how the leaves of green deciduous trees display such a wide variety of colors in Autumn, before they fall to the ground. Some of these explanations are far fetched and some come pretty close to the actual chemical mechanism.  Here’s how it actually works:

As most everyone knows, the chemical, chlorophyll, is responsible for the dominant green color palette we observe in Spring and Summer.  Like any chemical, chlorophylI decays over time and must be continually replenished and fortified with nutrients. [Read more…]

Over the last two months, the Christian world observed the season of Lent.  During that time period the faithful are called to search inside, critique their lives and discover opportunities for improving their spiritual being, by improving relationships with their fellow human beings. The traditional, more superficial idea of “giving up” things like candy or alcohol, has given way to a more introspective call to “work on” faults and failings; in order to become a better version of self. [Read more…]

“Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes”  ―    Thích Nhất Hạnh

In the 2:00 hour of Wednesday morning, July 10, a thunderstorm of considerable note rumbled through our zip code, dumping torrents of rain and treating us to a sound and light show sufficient to gain and hold one’s attention.  Again in the 4:00 hour another storm crashed it’s way into my slumber, and yet another in the 5:00 hour.  Unbeknownst to me, at some point during the night the volume of rain became too much for our 20 year old cast iron sump pump, and it dutifully gave it’s last full measure in defense of our basement. [Read more…]

“Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep…Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.”    -Mt 8:24-26

In order to get His point across, Jesus often spoke in parables.  His stories would occasionally shoot an unequivocal arrow directly to the heart of the issue. But more often, they only hinted obliquely at the lesson, leaving us to ponder and puzzle for the substance of the message.  But in the story of the stormy sea we hear an actual story (not a parable) about how The Leader handled a specific situation. If we treat this retelling of an actual event as allegory for conveying a leadership message, what lesson do we find in the telling? [Read more…]