Speaking of Leadership® Blog

Phil Holberton

Phil Holberton

Dedicated to helping you achieve your maximum potential



The Silver Tsunami

Reading Time: < 1 minute Peter Drucker once remarked that “Demographics is the history that has already happened.”  This is obviously true for society at large, but there are particular implications for the aging  Baby Boomers who own businesses and are starting to look for the exits. Factor in a smaller cohort of Millennials coming of age

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It’s the Transition, not the Task

Reading Time: < 1 minute The most successful among us, in our midst, seems to be universally good at managing themselves.  Perhaps the thing they do the best is managing their relationship with their actions; especially starting and staying the course.  This short HBR posting suggests that our greatest struggle “isn’t actually doing the thing, it’s

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Not So Rich, Not So Famous

Reading Time: < 1 minute Gold Rushes occur throughout history.  In 1849, thousands made a mad dash to California when gold was found at Sutter’s Mill.  Most returned home even poorer than they arrived.   In the mid-1800s, the railroad boom made a few rich but destroyed many more.   Remember the late 1990’s and the Internet bubble?  

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Models Matter

Reading Time: < 1 minute “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”  wrote the Russian novelist Tolstoy.   The same seems to be  true for “happy” (successful) businesses.  Regardless of the nature of the product or service offered,  the most successful companies today can be considered “software” companies in that

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“A Trillion Here, A Trillion There”

Reading Time: < 1 minute The late Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen is reputed to have characterized the “Great Society” fiscal policy of the 1960s with the wry observation that “ A billion here, a billion there….and after a while it adds up to real money.”   Fifty years later we add a few zeros and we’re talking trillions.  

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The Passion Trap

Reading Time: < 1 minute “Follow your passion”  may be in the top ten entries for career advice.  It may also be the most dangerous. This short article from Forbes, “Why Following Your Passion is Dead”, takes this advice to task as nearly certain to ruin or at least damage lives and careers. The author’s challenge

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Hard is Soft, Soft is Hard

Reading Time: < 1 minute Tom Peters is one of the great management writers of all time, best known for his groundbreaking, “In Search of Excellence.”  Over a long career, Peters has distilled and shared significant wisdom from observing a wide range companies. In a recent short blog posting, he summarizes nearly four decades of work in six

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Days of Disruption (No. 6)

Reading Time: < 1 minute With all the disruption being wrecked on traditional businesses by newcomers with new business models, it’s important to remember that the disruptors are sometimes disrupted before they can displace their competitors. To wit: Movie Pass:   This much touted start up offered a monthly subscription model for movie fans which, as a recent

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Are You Under the Disfluence?

Reading Time: < 1 minute Fairly or not, life is a first impression business, and as the saying goes we rarely get a second chance to make a first impression. Part of this is how we speak, especially in front of groups and how we rely on  “fillers” or “crutch words” such as “Um, “Ah”, “You know” and many others

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What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been

Reading Time: < 1 minute Apple made history this week by becoming the first company to achieve a trillion dollar market cap.  Given Apple’s success in recent years, you might not be surprised that it passed this milestone, but it’s 40 year history has not been a straight upward sloping line. There was a time

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