Musings at Altitude

Although I do my best thinking at 37,000 feet, our 777 went up to 40,000 feet on the flight cross country today.  I don’t remember the last time I was that high on a trip, but I can tell you that with a glass of wine (thanks to a “free beverage” coupon from a friend […]

My wife reminds me every now and then of how fixed I am in my ways.  I argue with her, but she’s right.  I am fixed in my ways and very confident in my own ways of doing things.  I struggle mightily with changes to my routine if they are prodded or directed by others […]

One of the blogs I read frequently is www.greatleadershipbydan.com.  This past Sunday, he was musing on the challenges of leadership in times of chaos, and he said this: “Our managers, like most managers today, are faced with some tough challenges. This is not the time to be pushing anything their way that’s not directly relevant […]

As I sit here at the end of a typical day in my business life, I can’t help but wonder how effective I really am.  Today I spent almost six hours of my eleven hour business day on the phone.  Of those six hours, five of them were spent with more than five people on […]

One of the wonderful things I get to do while cruising at 37,000 feet is go through my photo files.  I typically do this while listening to my favorite tunes on my iPod, and I often wonder what folks sitting next to me think while I sit there tapping to the music and smiling while […]

It’s hard to follow up a “things that make me smile” posting with a discussion on “omission”…but this one is still nagging at me and if I don’t follow up now it will continue to nag at me till I get my thoughts out. Let’s start with a definition of omission – “something left out, […]

I am blessed…seriously blessed…and I want to share with you some of the very many things that make me smile: (1) being home for 3 weeks straight – hasn’t happened in just about a decade (2) the first significant snow of the year (3) when the auditors walk out of the building (4) taking my […]

I grimaced while watching the Jets-Patriots game this evening.  The Jets played an awesome first half and leaped out to a big lead.  The Patriots scored right before half and then carried that momentum into the second half and charged back within one touchdown with only a few minutes left in the game.  The Jets got […]

Business can be a brutal battlefield – business lives are saved or lost by the decisions made by the business battlefield leaders.  And business battlefield leaders today are inundated with sensory data that drives decisions and actions…or sometimes indecisiveness and inaction.    [Photo from www.army.mil] I’ve both led in business battles and witnessed other leaders […]

One of the most memorable things about owning my own business in the late 90’s and then being part of a Silicon Valley start up right after 9/11 was the incredible sense of urgency when we were accountable for meeting payroll in the first case or keeping the company alive till the venture funding returned in the second.  […]