July 20 marks my ninth anniversary as a weekly guest columnist at the Philadelphia Business Journal with over 450 articles that aim to help people be better business leaders. For this anniversary column, I decided to share 34 principles of effective business leadership I have written about.
CEO of submersible exploring Titanic didn’t abide by cardinal rule that safety is paramount
A primary responsibility of all CEOs is to ensure the safety of those who place their trust in them. Risking one’s own life to advance technology is one thing. Risking the lives of others is quite another. Stockton Rush showed a callous disregard of his responsibility to his passengers.
I-95 rebuild challenges the negative perceptions of Philadelphia
Philadelphians have been known to view their city in terms of limitations and scarcity rather than opportunities and abundance. This negative perception has plagued our city for as long as I can remember. The rebuild of six lanes of I-95 in 12 days demonstrates we are better than that.
Starbucks’ $25.6 million lesson is one for leaders of all organizations
The equitable treatment of employees and fairness of any disciplinary action needs to be made using common sense and good critical judgment. It doesn’t appear that this was done by Starbucks when deciding to fire Phillips. This was an expensive lesson for Starbucks. It’s a lesson for all organizations.
Entrepreneurship graduates: You have business skills that give you an edge regardless of your career
You have “served in the trenches,” acquiring the skills of all successful businesspeople through real-time experiences that have monetary consequences—much different than only learning from case studies sitting in a classroom. Most undergraduates don’t have these experiences until they are well into their careers.
Hire people who know when to break the rules. Empower them to do so.
Always hire people with common sense and good critical judgment, because someday they may need to violate company policy or their authority to save the company money, reduce liability exposure or protect its reputation. Employees who on occasion violate company policy for the right reasons are your change agents and future leaders. Celebrate them.
HBO’s ‘Succession’ demonstrates the need for a family company leadership succession plan
Family-controlled companies eventually need to make a choice—do they want the company to be a vehicle to employ family members, or do they want it to be an engine of wealth creation for shareholders? Their company is competing against the best in the world, requiring it to be led by the best who can successfully compete. It’s rare that the most capable leaders can be found inside the family.
Plenty of questions for SEPTA after customer experience falls short
Providing a great customer experience needs to be part of the tone at the top expressed by the CEO and by the culture that senior leaders nurture within the SEPTA organization. SEPTA riders deserve no less.
A lesson in narrowing the political divide in our country
An email conversation with one of my readers narrowed the gap in our views because we listened to each other and acknowledged each other’s points even when we did not necessarily agree with them. We are all patriots. We need to talk to each other and not at each other about issues impacting our nation.
What Steve Jobs can teach us about getting out of our comfort zone
Quoting Steve Jobs, “I’ve never found anyone who has said no or hung up the phone when I called [to ask for help]. I just asked. … Most people never ask. And that’s what separates the people that do things from the people that just dream about them. You gotta act. And you gotta be willing to fail.”
Will denial of a rail permit to haul liquified natural gas through Philadelphia kill the project?
LNG released during a derailment is not only highly flammable, but also can be explosive, risking a catastrophe to people, property and the environment. There are over 1,000 train derailments each year. When the risk is small, but the result of a derailment could be catastrophic, you don’t take the risk.
After ‘pity city’ comment, MillerKnoll CEO learns key lesson in how to deliver a message
A lesson for all leaders: Watch what you say and how you say it. It impacts how you are viewed by your employees, and what you say might wind up on social media for the world to see.