LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL PUBLISHES MY ARTICLE "Going to Bat for Legend" ON DODGERS' ANNOUNCER VIN SCULLY

Thanks to Charlie Crumpley, editor at the LA Business Journal, my article on legendary Dodgers' play-by-play announcer Vin Scully ran this week.

Here is the link if you'd like to read the op-ed, courtesy of the Los Angeles Business Journal:http://www.labusinessjournal.com/news/2015/oct/12/going-bat-legend/

REAL LEADERS DON'T BOSS -- now only $5.99 on Kindle

My publisher, Career Press, has thoughtfully reduced the price of my first book, Real Leaders Don't Boss, to only $5.99 on Kindle!

I'm delighted because as you may know the proceeds go to not-for-profit organizations caring for our men and women in uniform who were wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan and now it is more affordable than ever.

Won't you please help me pass the word?  Thank you very much.

Ritch

ON LEADERSHIP

Thanks to Claire Mencke and IBD for interviewing me for her article.

Leaders & Success  

 

Go Round And Over Bars To Your Leadership Goals

BY CLAIRE MENCKE, FOR INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

05/22/2015 01:47 PM ET

If you belong to a group that has not been part of the traditional business or organization hierarchy, you know how hard it can be to get the powers that be to take you and your hopes and dreams seriously. As you rise, you might see fewer people like yourself around.

Instead of that uniqueness making you and your accomplishments more noticeable, you may feel more invisible.

Here are ways to thwart all that.

• Show you're the best. "You should do this all the time because you never know who's watching," said Angie Morgan, co-author with Courtney Lynch of "Leading From the Front: No-Excuse Leadership Tactics for Women," and co-founder of the consultancy Lead Star.

Working on leadership skills, especially when you're not in charge, helps you build a "leading attitude and puts you in a position of excellence," Morgan told IBD.

• Make the case. Improving yourself so you'll be seen as a candidate for advancement is always crucial for your future.

But make sure you know what management's plans are for advancing candidates within your organization, says management consultant Ritch Eich.

• Care for your staff. If you are not part of the old boys' club, you must have supportive people in your corner, Eich said. That falls to executives, who "in top leadership roles have a major responsibility to mentor others."

Mentoring is a vital way for all leadership candidates to advance, and the give-and-take it provides can give mentors key data and insights as well as aiding proteges.

• Anticipate and take risks. Morgan and Lynch learned their leadership skills in the Marine Corps.

The Marines' constant drills and feedback build strong habits for dealing with danger in a peer environment, notes Morgan. This training institutionalizes discipline in work and decision-making and can benefit civilian employee teams.

"In a group like that, you can't pull rank," she said. "It creates a climate of accountability, with support."

Men don't have a monopoly on dealing with risk and stress, says Morgan. But they may get an earlier start on learning to cope with it.

"None of us are hard-wired to deal with stress effectively," she said. "Our physical response is normally flight. But we can all learn to be better than our instincts."

• Compete. All leadership candidates "must learn to stand on their own," said Eich. You must be "visible, aggressive and competitive in the workplace." Part of this process is "learning how to sell yourself vigorously enough."

• Lead as you are. Succeeding in an organization does not mean you have to change your identity or personality.

"To be effective, you need to work on enhancing your strengths and improving your weaknesses," said Morgan. "You may need to learn some new behaviors, like holding back tears, or cutting back on others, like placing blame elsewhere. But never try to be someone you're not."

http://news.investors.com/management-leaders-and-success/052215-753944-go-round-or-over-hurdles-to-your-goal.htm

The Boy's Club Needs to Include Girls

The Boy’s Club Needs to Include Girls

Whether it’s Hollywood movie studios and their paucity of female directors, the tech industry and their alarming exodus of frustrated women, or the stifling male fraternity culture that dominates Wall Street, women continue to be marginalized in the business world.

The vast majority of CEOs responding to a McKinsey survey noted that hiring females is essential to “getting the best brains.” Sounds pretty obvious, doesn’t it? Despite increasing awareness of this issue, meaningful change remains agonizingly slow—less than 20 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and on average, women earn just 77 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.

Having worked in a variety of industries, I’ve been enormously fortunate to work with many incredibly talented and accomplished women including:

·      Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, Ph.D., the first—and founding—chancellor of the University of California, Merced.

·      Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D., senior vice president, Eli Lilly Company and former CEO, Riley Hospital for Children and former CEO, University of Michigan Health System.

·      Cleopatra Vaughns, civic leader, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MUNI) chair, the first female board member and the first female chair of San Francisco Visitors and Conference Bureau, Blue Shield of California community relations head, and president of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs.

·      Susan Hallat, the first female leader of golf marshals, Palmer Private course at Humana Challenge (and its forerunner, the Bob Hope Desert Classic).

·      Barbara Kiely, CPA, and captain, U.S. Naval Reserve and head of her own firm in Chicago.

·      Helen Mann, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital (Ann Arbor), head of special events and community engagement.

·      Barbara McElroy, R.N., Indiana University Hospitals physician relations head.

These women have been exemplary role models for all, but especially for women.  Their indefatigable drive, personality, intelligence and adaptability have inspired me and countless others.  All of these women welcomed tough assignments, and more importantly, delivered results—often in the face of adversity.

Real leaders commit all available resources to creating a positive organizational climate that has zero tolerance for any discriminatory behavior, whether against women or anyone else. Real leaders require their teams to establish systems and cultures that reward women and men equally, thereby encouraging women to focus on contributing, instead of fighting against out-of-date biases. Real leaders understand that expertise and contributions—not your sex—is what wins the race.

Here are five critical steps leaders need to take to increase the role—and value—of women in their organizations:

1.     Make the commitment: It sounds basic, but chief executives need to understand—and accept—that their organization’s bottom line will be enhanced by including women in policy-shaping forums and decisions.

2.     Make the commitment count: Tie executive compensation to the active inclusion and advancement of women—simply meeting a quota is not enough (and in fact, is counterproductive).

3.     Encourage and mentor women: The fact is that more women take on the combined role of breadwinner and caregiver than men, and organizations need to accommodate that—or they will ultimately suffer the loss of some great talent.  Women want tough assignments, and in my experience, are often better than men when it comes to collaborating.

4.     Check male egos at the door: Consciously or unconsciously, the “old boys” network is alive and well. Organizations must adopt a zero-tolerance policy against discrimination (and not just against women).  Instead of celebrating the behavior that still exists on Wall Street, it needs to be wiped out.

5.     Recognize women’s unique contributions: Most of the women I know and have worked with have been better at multi-tasking than men (myself included), and reach consensus faster and with less contention than most men.  It’s no coincidence that more female U. S. Senators have co-sponsored bills and reached across the aisle to get things done than their male counterparts.

Organizations need to realize that leadership requires extra innings. Not all games are decided in nine innings. Excelling in business requires a real team effort and leveraging the talents of everyone involved, regardless of their position within the organization—or their sex.

5 Steps Leaders Should Take to Increase the Role and Value of Women in Their Workplace

Many thanks to HR.BLR.com for posting my article about women at work. I hope it is useful to you in your endeavors.

Here is the link if you wish to read the article: http://hr.blr.com/HR-news/Discrimination/Workplace-Diversity/Steps-leaders-take-increase-role-value-women

"We Don't Need Politicians-- We Need Leaders" published in The Hill

The Hill posted my article about leadership requirements today. Here is the link if you'd like to read the article:thehill.com/.../231618-we-dont-need-politicians-we-need-leaders

My appreciation goes to Joe Picard, editor, for his assistance.

Memories: "(Sittin' on) the dock of the bay"

In the summer of 1968 as I was stationed at Naval Station Treasure Island (TI) in the middle of San Francisco Bay awaiting orders with many others to Vietnam, the hit song first recorded by Otis Redding "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" played over, over and over. Listening to it helped take our minds off the situation at hand. One day I was ordered to the TI navy brig for reasons I knew not. As it turned out, because I had a masters degree, I was sent to the Correctional Center, Naval Station Great Lakes (IL) instead of Vietnam where I served two years striving to rehabilitate military prisoners.

I just saw this superb video which brought back many memories for me and I wanted to share it with others. As some of you will recall, this was a particularly tumultuous period in our country's history. I, like many others, lost close friends in this war.

Here is the link: http://rare.us/story/this-beautiful-collaboration-of-sitting-on-the-dock-of-the-bay-will-bring-you-back-to-a-better-time/