Executive Leadership

Since today is President’s Day, I figured it would be a good day to talk about leadership at the highest level. Whether you’re the President of the United States or the president of a company, being a successful executive requires some skills in addition to the ones necessary to excel at lower levels of management. Today we’ll look at the following three:

  • Public Speaking and presentations.
  • Managing egos.
  • Charisma.

Each US President from George Washington to George W. Bush had these skills before becoming President (some were better than others) so we’ll use some Presidential examples.  Read more... (605 words, 2 images, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

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Super Tuesday Quote of the Day

I was watching some of the Super Tuesday coverage on the Fox News Channel and caught an interview with Michael Reagan. Michael is the son of President Ronald Reagan (Reagan and first wife, Jane Wyman, adopted Michael) and he said “I’ve heard my father’s name mentioned so often during this race that I thought he was running!”

Ronald Reagan was an extremely popular President — he left office with the highest approval rating of any 20th Century President and won 49 states during his re-election bid in 1984. So it’s no surprise that republican candidates are all claiming to be “the next Reagan.” Even Barack Obama recently paid the Gipper some compliments, only to be distasteful attacked by the other democrats vying for their party’s nomination.  Read more... (186 words, 2 images, estimated 45 secs reading time)

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Hannah Montana Takes “Racy” Photos

For some bizarre reason, Hannah Montana star, Miley Cyrus, decided to take some suggestive pictures of herself and post them on the web. Although the photos are far from explicit, they not something you’d expect a 15 year old who is on top of the world to do – I don’t have a link to the photos but you can easily find them using the search box on the right.

I know many child stars feel the need to shed their images when they’re ready to transition to adult roles, but there has to be a better way than using their sexuality:  Read more... (261 words, 2 images, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

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Who’s your candidate for President?

On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, the biggest news story of the year in the U.S. is about to hit full force. Will we have the first Mormon, Black, Italian or female President? Will John McCain or John Edwards fare better this time around? Will one of the lesser known candidates surprise the world tomorrow? No one can say for sure, but it’ll certainly be exciting to watch.

I came across an interesting link from WQAD that ranks all the candidates based on your stances on major issues. Simply answer the eleven questions and you’ll see your results (note: the system will also include candidates that are no longer running). You can visit it at http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460.  Read more... (141 words, 2 images, estimated 34 secs reading time)

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Identity Theft Company Puts its Money where its mouth is

I normally ignore commercials that I hear on the radio but one from identity theft protection company LifeLock grabbed my attention. Todd Davis, the CEO of LifeLock, provided his social security number in the ad to show his confidence in the service his company offers. He also does this in print and television ads as well as on the company’s website.  Read more... (188 words, 2 images, estimated 45 secs reading time)

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Bill Clinton shows us how to handle hecklers

A couple days ago, Bill Clinton gave a speech to people supporting his wife’s campaign. Some guy, dressed as a robot, interrupted his talk, demanding an apology for some rapper, and threw papers around. Clinton, in a calm manner, told him “you need to find more environmentally responsible ways to protest” and “you can disagree with me without killing trees.”

Now, Clinton had the audience on his side (he’s obviously very popular among his wife’s supporters), but he did several things right that we can learn from when we’re heckled during a talk:  Read more... (386 words, 2 images, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

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Mitt Romney – Faith in America

All week, the media has been speculating about Governor Romney’s speech about his religion. Will it hurt him or harm him? Is this the right time for such a speech? Why does he need to give such a speech in the first place?

As someone who has lived in Massachusetts my whole life, I am quite familiar with Mitt Romney. I remember when he came close to taking Ted Kennedy’s senate seat away from him, his talk during the closing ceremony of the Utah Winter Olympics, and his campaign and four-year term as Governor.  Read more... (471 words, 2 images, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

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