Yesterday I was the closing keynoter for a conference of credit union leaders. One of the speakers who was on before me mentioned what was, to me, a startling statistic. He said that the average credit union CEO spends roughly 60% of his or her day just dealing with regulatory red tape. For the record (in case you’re not a credit union professional), this is not the best or most productive use of the CEO’s time. Which begs the question:

Are ...

Leaders should be intelligent, right? I mean, it doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s kind of the ideal. We want our leaders—community, corporate, political—to be intelligent.

But what kind of intelligent?

There are some leaders who know everything there is to know about their industry. Other leaders have read dozens—maybe even hundreds—of books about leadership. Some leaders are particularly strong in emotional intelligenc Continue Reading →

“Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”

~ Samuel Johnson

If there were a “magic bullet” trait for living an interesting (and interested) life, I would have to echo Dr. Johnson’s sentiments and go with curiosity.

I’ve found that the most intelligent, the most interesting, and the most creative people that I know tend to also be the most curious.

[You: “Curious about what?”]

[Me: “Good! You’re curious about that! Way to go!”]

Curious about, well, everything. These people have ...

Imagine this: There’s a crisis looming in your business.

[You: “Why do you have to be so negative, Bill?”]

 [Me: “Fair point. Let’s reset.”]

Imagine this: There’s an opportunity looming in your business. [You: “Thank you.”] And now you need your team to come up with creative ideas to best take advantage of this great opportunity. You want them to “think outside of the box.” You want them to “go wild!” You tell them, “Let your imaginations flow!” You expect magic.

And instead, you ...