I recently reviewed Beyond Performance. It's an interesting book in which co-authors Scott Keller and Colin Price argue that: “Performance-focused leaders invest heavily in those things that enable targets to be met quarter by quarter, year by year. What they tend to...
Independent Thinking Blog
Daria Steigman
4 Leadership Lessons from the Penn State Scandal
It's impossible to ignore what happened at Penn State. Which is ironic since Penn State officials, impossibly, chose to ignore what was happening. This was a massive failure on many levels. Here are four leadership lessons: 1. Leadership is about making tough...
Why Groupon’s Founders Are On the Way Out
Groupon went public on Friday, and it was reported to be the largest IPO since Google. I don't get it. The founders took $900 million in cash from the company before it went public. Which suggests they think the company is overvalued (and they want their money while...
Out of Practice
Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester suggested that his team's historic late-season collapse had nothing to do with the fact that he and his teammates were drinking on the job. His rationale: they were doing the same thing in April and May--and the team was winning....
Pulling Your Chain
When I was in graduate school, there was this guy who had a habit of putting his hands where they didn't belong. Many of my female classmates would make excuses for him, saying he was from [anywhere but here], and he just didn't understand personal space. Fast forward...
6 Sales Questions Every Business Must Know
I'll be the first to admit that conversations about CRM, lead times, funnels, and sales systems make my eyes glaze over. Maybe it's because I'm a small business. Or that I'm a fan of paper, pen, business cards, big red desk calendar. Or that every time someone starts...
The Problem with Form Letters
I received the following letter the other day: Dear Valued [name of organization] Member, Please excuse this form letter, but it is an inexpensive way for us to let you know that your membership is up for renewal. We wanted to be sure you have the opportunity...
Is Groupon the Next Lycos?
Lycos used to be a big deal. Lycos was one of the first ad-supported search engines. It completed one of the fastest IPOs in history. It was one of the first profitable Internet companies. And it barely exists today. Look at the home page, and you see a flashback to...
3 Surprisingly Awesome Ways to Use Location-Based Marketing
I really dislike the early iterations of location-based marketing. They're interruptive rather than integrated. And gamification turns me off. (Seriously: being the mayor of your local coffee shop matters to you?) Then there’s the whole tweeting-about-it thing....
The Secret to Mobilizing Everyone
I've always been fascinated by people-powered movements. (Heck, I even took on class on them in graduate school.) That point where people decide they're done sitting by. They've had enough. They break through the fear barrier. Or the paralysis barrier. Or just the...