Reinvention 101: 5 Lessons From Robert Downey, Jr. by Patrick J. Kiger

entrepreneur.com / view original The record-shattering opening success of The Avengers, which sold more than $200 million in theater tickets in the United States and did about $640 million in business worldwide during opening weekend, is further evidence of an amazing fact: Robert Downey, Jr. not only rules Hollywood, but he's staged an even more impressive turnaround than General …

Don’t Promote Mediocrity by Peter J. Munson

view original / smallwarsjournal.com Brigardier Mark Arnold, an Army reservist and CEO of a multinational manufacturing firm, argues for reforms to the military's personnel system in an essay at Armed Forces Journal. There are some familiar refrains here. Today’s best junior officers, those with high talent and a strong calling to service, should become the admirals and generals …

6 Habits of Truly Memorable People by Jeff Haden

view original / @jeff_haden / inc.com How to stick out in the minds of your colleagues and customers--no gimmicks required. In order to succeed, almost everyone—whether business owner or employee—must be memorable. While you don't have to be The Most Interesting Man in the World, being known is one of the main goals of marketing, advertising, and personal …

The Exit Interview

by J. William DeMarco In the Military we have a rather unique "tradition" of the exit interview.  When a commander is about to leave, public affairs or in the case of the Bloody Hundredth, the Wing Historian will give a quick interview regarding accomplishments, plans and vision.  It seemed to last no more than five minutes …

INNOVATION: LEARNING FROM THE BEST by Mick Ukleja

view original / leadershiptraq.com Blogger's note:  So many great points in this post...huge for organizations to understand, give space, and time to think... Create a space inside your organization to create, to build, to innovate.  Also realize not everyone is a creative...and that's okay.  There's a tension between efficiencies and effectiveness that has to be addressed...but innovation …

Welcome to the Machine…or how will this affect our people?

by J. William DeMarco Shouldn't that be the first question we ponder as leaders? Seems like most people evaluate events or decisions based on how they will be affected personally. Leaders need to ask not only how will this impact our people but they also need to look at how decisions will impact those above and next …

5 Leadership Lessons From the Business Trenches Janine Popick

view original / inc.com In the age of Pinterest and Instagram, 11 years in business seems like a long time. Here's what longevity has taught me. Forget five things; I could probably write an entire book about all the successes and failures I've encountered since I opened the doors of my e-mail marketing company, VerticalResponse, …

5 Ways Process Is Killing Your Productivity by Lisa Bodell

fastcompany.com / view original Processes are supposed to help organizations scale up, improve efficiency for new hires and existing employees, and so on--but they can quickly get out of control. In a study of U.S. and European companies, The Boston Consulting Group found that “over the past fifteen years, the amount of procedures, vertical layers, interface structures, …