Although it may seem irresponsible to teach people how to abuse power, I see it all the time. So, either they are learning on their own or they are following what might be considered “natural behavior”. Brains are lazy. That is the natural state. Making the intellectual effort to leap beyond the simple explanation and…
We cannot avoid the influences and effect of power in daily life. It is a dynamic, complicated byproduct of social interaction and constantly changes even in a single relationship between two people. How often has the phrase “where do you want to eat?” come up and how often was that decision based on your desire…
If you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge advocate of leadership. It creates value. It is a force multiplier. It improves cohesion. But, contrary to popular misconception… Power is not leadership. Leadership, I mean “good” leadership, includes a component of ethics where power is more often a tool wielded to change behavior at whatever cost. Let’s…
I, like everyone else, was vastly entertained and totally engaged by Chris Hadfield during his missions assigned to the International Space Station (ISS). It was a great piece of public outreach that I think captured the world’s attention on science and space. So, why does this topic show up here? Think of it as a…
“Cause of death?” “The heart stopped.” If you are a CSI fan, a fan of the spinoffs, forensic or crime documentaries, or any other show or movie of the genre, you’ve probably watched hundreds of hours of forensic science. You’re practically a coroner! Forget all of the testing, the gruesome details of each case, the…
Sitting in a chair does not make you a leader. (Not even if it is a really nice chair). I struggled for a long time over the difference between being a leader and being a manager. I knew there was an important way to parse the two, but it took me a while to figure…
In class, leadership seems all so simple. It is in black and white. There are diagrams. One chapter seems to lead logically to another. Like any new practical skill, the theory is not the same as practice. Is leadership a science or is it an art? Excluding the “mystic” part, I have come to realize…
Leadership, like any human attribute, comes down to DNA and culture – Nature versus Nurture. I am firmly convinced that every skill necessary to be a great leader can, unequivocally, be learned and mastered by anyone. Full stop. That is the “Nurture” part. The skills and the theory represent a limited field of knowledge. With…
One of the hardest comments for anyone to say when speaking of Bill O’Reilly is “I have no opinion about the guy.” He makes it almost impossible to separate the messenger from the message. Human bias is not part of an intellectual process, it is an emotional one. Almost everyone has a bias regarding O’Reilly….
The color green is important here. If you are alive today and watched any kind of television in the last 20 years you’ve seen the green screen of night vision recording: war reporting, “ghost hunters”, traffic helicopters, numerous movies. The pictures are instantly recognizable as having mediocre resolution, but clear enough to see the creepy…