Bud was one of the most brilliant people in his organization.  Only in his mid-thirties, Bud amazed his senior managers with his ability to grasp problems and develop innovative and effective solutions to those problems.  He was highly sought after as a "go-to" guy and would consistently come up with creative approaches.  His management decided to give him a thorny project with a team of over 100 professionals.  "This is my chance to really prove I can deliver", Bud thought as he willingly accepted the project.

Bud wasted no time in coming up with some great solutions which his management thought were brilliant.  Expectations were sky-high and Bud was on a project high.  Then the problems started.

My wife Patty and I some time back completed a massive renovation on a townhome in the Seattle area.   The townhome was built in the late 70's and was decorated using all of the finest materials that the Disco era had to offer.  The original owners liked it so much that they changed precisely nothing for the 30 years they lived there right down to the 8-track player on the guest room night stand.  We purchased the townhome in late 2009 with the intention of renovating the townhome and occupying it after our son graduated high school.

Some time back I was having breakfast with a couple of guys that I work with in one of the organizations which I volunteer.  In this organization, I have been leading a group of about nine men for about four months to set a vision for the group, decide upon our key focus areas, and lay out activities which the group will undertake for the next year.  I was very pleased with how the team "gelled" and the fact that we seemed to be moving the ball forward towards meeting our vision.  During breakfast, one of the guys told me that, by and large, the team was happy with me but a couple felt that I came in too heavy-handed and authoritarian.  Blech.

During winter my hands tend to dry out and get chapped.  One night when my hands felt like sandpaper I asked my wife if she had any hand lotion.  "Sure, what kind do you want?" she asked.  "The hand lotion kind," I said like the knuckle-dragger I am.  She then handed me an ice bucket which contained the following:

As leaders we have a responsibility to ensure that our area is managed effectively and that we are driving the organization to achieve its stated objectives. We also have a responsibility to grow the next generation of leaders to ensure that the great work we've done continues on after we've moved on.　 Keep some of these nuggets in mind as you ponder making the next generation of leaders great:　

A number of years back I was in a meeting with two HR representatives at my company.They were explaining to me how the HR organization wanted to be more “strategic” with its clients and how they wanted to help us with annual resource planning.   At the time, our biggest problem was filling open positions with qualified candidates; a number of key positions had been open for months with no qualified candidates in the hiring pipeline. When I asked the HR reps about how they were going to help with this problem, they both told me that they didn’t have time to address the hiring issues because they were tasked with being more “strategic”.  Needless to say, the meeting went downhill in a hurry because the HR reps were more interested in fulfilling the HR organization’s “be strategic” mandate than they were in helping me with my real-life problem. 

Brad was an incredibly bright young executive with a very promising future.  Ever since graduating college, he seemed to take on increased responsibilities in his company like a duck to water.  He married his college sweetheart, Nancy, right after graduation and has two small children.   Brad's talent didn't go unnoticed in the industry, with several competitors approaching Brad about his willingness to join another firm.  He steadfastly resisted, that is until the offer of all offers came his way.

Cantata Group, a larger and more prominent competitor to his current company, wined and dined Brad and ultimately offered him a VP position with a higher salary and better benefits.  The offer was too good to pass up so Brad talked with Nancy about the job and they both became enamored with how this was going to advance Brad's career and what they would be able to do with the extra money.  Brad joyfully accepted Cantata's offer, gave his current company two weeks' notice, and started in his new VP role.  

Within a year of joining Cantata, he noticed some unexpected side effects of his new position.  He was required to be in weekly global executive virtual meetings which could happen at any time of the day or night.  He was routinely working 60+ hours a week, missing dinner with Nancy and the kids.  He traveled at least once a week, many times to put out fires at clients. His eating habits were horrendous and he wasn't exercising due to his schedule.  He began putting on weight.  Nancy was frustrated with him not being around and his kids missed their daddy.  The stress was unbearable and led to Brad one day grabbing his chest and collapsing during a customer meeting.

Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and Nothing But the Truth

Unless you excused yourself for whatever reason you were there for at least fifteen minutes listening to his philosophy.  The problem was that Moe was friends with the person managing our contract so we had to put up with him. 

My wife, son and I went to New York City some time back to celebrate my son's graduation from high school.  We stayed in a great hotel that my wife scored right in Times Square.  While in NYC we took the opportunity to take in a couple of Broadway shows.  One that we were all very excited about seeing was Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark.  The music, acting, and effects were all terrific and were executed flawlessly....with one exception.

Years back a required skill for secretaries (politically correct = administrative assistants) was shorthand.  There are a number of shorthand systems including Gregg Shorthand, Pitman Shorthand, and Handywrite Shorthand.  With the advent of technology, texting, and 140-character tweets the Mad Men-era shorthand has been replaced by a world of abbreviations and phonetic acronyms which describe the most popular thoughts, feelings, and reactions that we use in our daily speech.  Most acronyms are easily decipherable, some  take a bit of noodling to understand, while still others require a quick web search to translate.