In my work and personal life, it often seems like we are provided false choices. I am suspicious of people who frame issues as only an either-or proposition. I respect leaders who have the courage and character to speak honestly about the complex challenges facing our world.

Maybe that's why I found Michael Bloomberg's commencement speech at Harvard Business School so timely and refreshing. "Calling on the Harvard Business School Class of 2019 to demonstrate “moral leadership,” and to inv...

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While I was in graduate school for my MBA, I read for the first time Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail from April 16, 1963. This letter may seem like unusual reading for MBA students and mostly dedicated capitalists, as Dr. King's letter addressed themes of leadership and social justice.

After reading the view of local clergy, Dr. King wrote his letter in the Birmingham Jail on scraps of paper and completed it on a legal pad provided by his defense attorneys. It is interes...

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(Just above this post is a PDF of the Letter from the Birmingham Jail by Dr. Martin Luther King.)

While attending Harvard Business School, I saw many examples of courageous leadership.   Entrepreneurs need courage.  Politicians need courage.  What is interesting to me is that leadership is fundamentally defined by having the courage to express your views - despite opposition, despite fear, despite overwhelming odds.   It is courage that defines leadership. 

One of the best illustrations of exp...
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Holiday weekends are great moments to reflect and think about our lives.  I am not sure where I heard the following quote, but I think it is profound as we try to make sense of the world around us. 

"we live in an era where we enjoy a wealth of information but a poverty of knowledge."

I often say that the first job of a leader is to define reality - not as they might want - but as it is.   Reality may appear different depending on your perspective, but the leaders who have the time to demon...
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A couple of great messages to consider and think about for leaders of all types and all types of organizations.

What Motivates Us - Daniel Pink and his new book Drive - is great and offers useful insights for entrepreneurs and leaders.  

Watch - http://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc

A second article worth reading is from David Brooks in the NYTimes - which is a summary of  two ways of thinking about life, one that emphasizes the individual and one that emphasizes circumstances.

Read - http://nyti.ms/b9IX...
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This article by David Koretz posted on MediaPost, struck me as something that would benefit my entrepreneurial friends, so I am passing it along not as a (tweet) but as something that will help make us think about our own companies and the organizations we are involved in building.

Organizations require different types of people at different stages.  Although my business life is mostly spent in the first category, I am thankful to have always had a good team surrounding me that were strong 2s ...
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This is a useful summary regarding the challenges facing capitalism. The timing of the Catholic Church suggesting a moral framework for market capitalism couldn't be better.  

In my view the recent failures of capitalism are not as much a failure of markets as a failure of morality.  The first place I start in evaluating companies and their potential is to understand the values behind the entrepreneurs.  If the only goal is money, then the purpose of the company will not likely endure or bene...

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