Rick Smith

In July, I joined two former Fortune 500 CEOs to launch a new business – training CEO succession candidates for the world’s most significant companies, utilizing dozens of current and former CEOs as faculty.  The launch has had its share of ups and downs, changes in direction, and frustrations.  But ...

Everyone hates the idea that some people rise through the ranks simply because they develop a friendly relationship with the boss. On some level, it just doesn’t seem fair. But do you hang out with friends whom you don’t have a relationship with? Who you don’t like? Of ...

When planning for battle, you need to dismantle hierarchy.  People need to feel free to make suggestions, unconcerned for their level or position in the organization.  This is how creativity flourishes within a team. This is how real innovation – innovation that comes from insights from the front line, occurs. But when it’s ...

There are few things more destructive to a team than a no win manipulator. To illustrate, I was just watching updates about the uprising in Egypt on Fox News. The announcer said that Obama had intervened directly in the situation, then asked the panel, “So, did Obama do too much, or ...

Shortly after H. Ross Perot had sold his company to General Motors and joined its board, he made the following infamous observation, “Where I come from, when we see a snake, we kill it. You guys form a committee to study the snake which then hires a snake consultant!” Organizations breed snakes. ...

When you want to accomplish something you think is close to impossible, follow a program that others have used to succeed. This thought came to me a few months ago at the dinner table. My wife, an accomplished and enthusiastic runner, had just signed up for her 12th marathon (having raised ...