Author: Dick Cross

Your Job at the Top

Prosperity is just around the corner for those who learn leadership. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859 That sounds like many of our businesses today –…

Out With the Old

Make time in your work life to contemplate what you could be. We’ve all heard about continuous turnarounds. These are the businesses everybody talks about, the ones constantly leaving everyone gasping in their tailwinds. Just about the time we figure…

The Trouble With Goals

Why motivating ‘creatives’ takes more than straight-line thinking. Lots of people miss goals. I’ve been one of them. But we keep playing the game, bowing to the ritual while the “setters” of the goals continue moving the targets just beyond…

Activity Beats Execution

How to rethink your thinking to move the organization forward. The execution fads in business – strategic planning, management by objective, total quality, just-in-time, and others before these – have had their day. Like most fashionable management concepts, execution really…

Revelation: The Answers Aren’t in the Numbers

Our obsession with “the numbers” in business exploded in the 1960s, when the new “science” of decision theory crossed paths with low-cost computer power. Business scholars began the stampede toward a new “law:” given enough numbers, anyone can run anything.…

Hyper Gear!

You’ve probably felt one before. A company where the atmosphere’s electric. A place where everyone seems energetically locked together in spirit to accomplish something great. Versus other places that are dull. With dull people simply enduring their days at work…

Thermonuclear Influence

Humility is the key for turning up the pace. It’s easy to get carried away with ourselves in our heady Jobs at the Top. We’re all susceptible to hubris, to some degree. But your degree of susceptibility depends upon your…

Duty vs. Responsibility

Duty, not responsibility, is your greatest source of power at the top. When I talk to CEOs about the gravity of their jobs, many bemoan their burdens and responsibilities. They talk about what they “owe” – to boards, investors, lenders,…

Be The Lore

Inspiration starts with … You. We love stories about others who inspire us. Because stories about those kinds of people allow us to imagine that we’re just like them. It’s why we watch sports. Buy People Magazine. It’s why we…