I never planned to be a teacher in the first place. I backed into it.  I went up to Tufts, with the idea of becoming a doctor. So I became pre-med and majored in... More

Power sticks to founders like glue.  Power is indispensable in getting an organization off the ground but when too much power is concentrated in the one person’s hands,... More

I came out of nowhere. I'm somewhat of a brash New Yorker, and I was working in the "good manners" South. I'm very instinctive, extraverted, and I tend to think out loud.... More

I had only the haziest idea of who Florence Nightingale was—a Good Samaritan, I thought, tending to soldiers in some long-ago war. "The Lady with the Lamp," as she was... More

Here's an irony, a contradiction of sorts: capable people, high achievers, often fail to take care of themselves in important ways. Poor diet, lack of regular exercise,... More

Philip Smith, the head of investment banking for a global bank, sat uneasily in in a conference room, waiting for the bank's head of HR, who declined to tell him the... More

It's always interesting, if humbling, to suddenly notice what's missing in a situation that's utterly familiar to me. All the more so when that thing is totally basic and... More

It's always a problem when too much power is concentrated in the hands of the top person.  That's almost a given in start-ups run by the founder. Inevitably,... More

From behind his massive mahogany desk, polished to such a sparkling gleam it almost hurt my eyes, Sam Califon sat high in his black upholstered desk chair. A big man,... More