Leadership Mojo

Why Leadership Mojo?

       “Lonely at the top” is a myth of leadership. Far from lonely, most top dogs are inundated with too many who suck their mojo dry. A bigger challenge is knowing whom to trust. Smart leaders have super support systems both in and outside an organization.
        When I advised medical company president Dr. Hamil, baffling distribution glitches were cutting into margins. As we improved systems, oddly, a trusted employee resigned suddenly. Like magic, the problems disappeared and profits returned to normal. The "trusted" one had embezzled assets....
        King Arthur had Merlin to maintain perspective and avoid group think. Who is your "Merlin," the wise adviser with your best interests at heart? Who prods you into new ways of seeing things and refuses to kowtow to your whims?   
        Whether you are one of my clients, or a fellow traveler on the journey to achieve your deepest wishes, you are welcome here. Leadership Mojo is a safe haven to think, reflect, and share ideas about leadership. More suggestions are on my company website at LodeStar Universal. I invite you to join the dialog.  You won't be lonely now.

One Hot Reason to Love Four Seasons

Remember those long-ago days when hotels didn't have hair dryers? I do. Lugging them around was a pain. Internationally, it was worse stuffing converters in your tennis shoes to save packing space.

Time marches on, and what I find works best for me now is a flat iron. Because hair is the last thing you do (especially when you have a curly mane like mine) before you walk out the door, the flat iron is an even bigger hassle even though the shape is better. A flat iron is a hot iron, which means you can't pack it while it's blistering, so you end up impatiently tapping your toes while waiting, or blowing on it or waving it all over the room in a flat-iron dance trying to cool it.

A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting with Four Seasons sales manager Joe Dunnavant and mentioned  how I wished they had flat irons in the rooms. He looked at me blankly and said, "All you have to do is ask, and you will."

But, Joe, I said, what if they don't have a flat iron? He said, "that's our problem not yours. They'll get one."

You gotta love this.... Next time I post I have one more good story to share.

Why I Like Four Seasons and Shy Away From Marriott

Marriott's a big name, a brand many people are comfortable with. I am not. Here's why: Their employees are not empowered to use common sense when to do so trumps rules and regulations. For example, during a recent stay over New Year's eve in Ft. Lauderdale, I was about to turn in early when the sound of city-wide fireworks caught my attention. As the light show erupted, I stood on my 12-story balcony to watch when...... poof,....

Harvard's Elegant Leadership Solution: The Third Stage

        Kudos to Harvard for asking a provacative question and delivering  an even more compelling answer. The question I reference was posed six years ago by three B-school professors among them Rosabeth Moss Kanter, " How might the mission of a university change in the 21st century?"

       The answer is even better than the question, "Throw open the doors to older adults and give them the tools to help change the world."

      According to a May 9, 2011 Wall St. Journal article,  Harvard opened its doors to veteran leaders, such as former Trader Joe's president Doug Rauch,  to solve salient social issues. In exchange, late career executives can spend a year on campus auditing any class they choose, meeting regularly with faculty and students.

     Here's to encouraging more universities to take to Harvard's lead. Education doesn't stop with a degree.

What Can You Do to Build a Fully Sighted Organization?

    A fully sighted company anticipates and "sees" the obvious and the not-so-obvious events, dynamics, and influences that are critical to success versus ignoring it. According to author Margaret Heffernan who wrote Willfull Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril says such blindness happens when there are things we should know, could know, but somehow manage not to know.

    Heffernan, who was born in Texas, but grew up in the Netherlands spoke at a Vancouver conference recently. I was deeply impressed with her work, which reminds me a great deal of the themes I also find relevant - such as how to avoid drinking the  Kool-Aid of group thinking.

    One of Heffernan's pet peeves is multi-tasking. Getting to the point, the brain doesn't do it, as I

This Lemon's a $4.9 Billion Lulu

    Lululemon founder Chip Wilson says that the famous Lululemon name had nothing to do with either lemons or any gal named Lulu.

    The truth is, he  sold an earlier company to a group of Asians at a premium in large part because the name of that company had a lot of l's in it....For the venture that turned out to be Lululemon, he didn't want to buck the trend of previous successes. L's were a top priority, and Lululemon.... Branding experts may weep, but that's what the man said.  I wouldn't lie to you.

    Wilson leveraged his knowledge of high-tech athletic fabrics into a multi-billion dollar publically traded company. Annual revenue runs around $450MM. His market timing - different forms of yoga appeal to both aging baby boomers as well as the six-pack ab crowd, was impecable. As one woman told me, "Even guys love Lululemon on women. You know, you don't jiggle so much in Lululemon."

    Apparently, I've been living under a tortise shell,