By Michael Holland - My keen financial planning colleagues can speak for hours about the art and science of balancing portfolios. For the rest of us, we know that it's good to have a balanced portfolio whether it's with financial assets, the food we choose to consume over a week, or the selection [...]
by Michael Holland - Rock stars and celebrities often have eccentric requirements for their pre-gig preparation rooms. The famous band Van Halen had a clause in their contract that specifically said they wanted bowls of M&Ms backstage, but that all the brown ones must be removed. Seems ridiculous. But there was a method [...]
by Michael Holland - Do you have legitimate authority? What a great question. Malcolm Gladwell in his intriguing book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, brings us perspective that we should know—or may already know—but that we often overlook. This perspective is contained in a principle of legitimacy and [...]
by Michael Holland - There comes a point in time when leaders begin to lead other leaders. They have several people below them who are guiding teams or departments of their own, and they can see the breadth of their empire spread out before them, with all their resources working together to achieve [...]
By Michael Holland - A few years ago I joined a men’s lacrosse league. I hadn’t played lacrosse in quite a number of years, but yearned to be back in a competitive game, expending all that stressful energy and feeling the rush of natural adrenaline. To prepare, I went out for a run, [...]
by Michael Holland - Most leaders take on their first management role between the ages of 28 and 32. They are put in charge of their former peers and expected to continue producing top notch work while they take on managing the team. New to the job and with no training, these new leaders [...]
By Michael Holland - “Hi I’m Mike, and I’m a recovering bad leader.” There was a time – or rather a season – in my life in which I led in ways that caused some collateral damage. I drove hard for objectives using sheer will to drive teams forward. While “I” may have [...]
By Michael Holland - Adolf Hitler has a legacy. He left a rippling wake from his leadership. As soon as you saw that name you had an immediate reaction to the legacy he has left and understandably a very negative reaction. Now consider Abraham Lincoln who also has a legacy. He left a [...]
by Michael Holland - Manager Matt is two years into his 1st tour of duty as a leader. He’s survived the dark days of learning to manage on the fly with new situations when everything was new to him. He’s been through handling performance reviews and slow staff meetings, handled performance challenges and [...]
by Michael Holland - When an employee makes a dishonorable decision, they create small ripples of hurt. When executives make dishonorable decisions, they hurt whole organizations of people as well as those with whom the people interact. Hundreds if not thousands of people are impacted. There’s a standard to which most of us [...]
