As leaders, we face many conundrums. Speed fears quality fears speed. Compassion fears accountability fears compassion. Mastery fears breadth fears mastery. You can name the ones that plague you the most.

I’m excited to announce that this year’s coaching scholarship recipient is Adam Braun, Pencils of Promise.

It is my strong intention this year to love my work. It’s easy to love the “fun” parts of my job – helping a client find a new perspective on her team’s challenges, leading an organization as they set new directions, strengthening a leadership team through honest dialogue. Sometimes it’s not so easy to love the day to day processes and tasks that make it possible for me to do the “fun” stuff. This year, I intend that my love for my work will embrace all of the work I do.

Hope is much too fundamental to be just a strategy. 

Strategies come and go, depending on market forces, technology, the economy and many more variables. But hope endures. Without hope, what’s the point?

Yes, leadership matters!

As I transition from my role as Founding Director of the Concordia MBA back to my focus on consulting, one of the clearest “take aways” from this incredible learning experience is a renewed awareness of how very much leadership matters. To the organization, the people in it, and to our communities.

Thursday, the central US was hit by a nasty winter storm that fouled up both the Chicago and Dallas hub airports (among others) in a big way. I left my home in Austin, Texas at 8 AM and arrived at my hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina (without a suitcase) “only” 17 hours later. Along the way, I learned three lessons that seem worth thinking about.

Several years ago on Valentine’s Day, Tim Sanders’ book, Love is the Killer App was released. We were in the throes of the dot com bust and everyone was looking for the “killer app” that would drive the next wave. Sanders showed up, telling us that love is the most powerful force in business.

Got your New Year’s resolutions all set? Weight loss or exercise make that list more than any other resolutions, year in and year out. I hate to break it to you, but your business brain needs to lose some weight too. You’re carrying around some myths that are slowing you down just as much as those extra ten pounds. Shed these myths in the New Year and you’re sure to get better results!

If you haven’t read Blue Ocean Strategy (by Kim and Mauborgne), put it on your back to school reading list. The authors have created an analytical framework for discovering and evaluating opportunities for discontinuous change. A careful read of this book is likely to cause you to ask some new questions about your business. And that’s a great start toward finding new answers.

The economy is in a mess and the technology sector is suffering badly. Except for Apple. Even with Jobs on medical leave, Apple continues to produce good results. Apple received Fortune Magazine’s “Most Admired Companies” top rank. In the detailed categories, they were #1 for innovation, people management, and quality of goods/services.