Erik Foley

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Lead

Lead

To lead is to serve. Leaders give up the right to think of themselves first. Truly great leaders are aware the cards are stacked against them: humans in power are more likely to be self-serving, pretend the rules don't apply to them and consider their perspective as most valuable. They set about creating cultures and systems that foment constructive dissension, personal care and responsibility, and disciplined thinking.

A Powerful Method for Deciding What to Listen to, Read, or Watch

A Powerful Method for Deciding What to Listen to, Read, or Watch

Undigested information. Clogged thoughts. Bloated brain. You can see it in the eyes exposed to too many words, images, memes, videos: distant, distressed, and drained. You just went to the all-you-can-eat Internet giga shop or drank mightily of the social media fountain. I confess: I don't know what

How to Chase Shiny Objects

How to Chase Shiny Objects

Struggling in the marketplace? Challenged to keep employees engaged? Some recommend a deliberate approach but...that sounds like a lot of work. Here's how to chase shiny objects.

How to Survive and Thrive Right Now as a Sustainability Professional

How to Survive and Thrive Right Now as a Sustainability Professional

To save you and I both some writing and reading time, I could summarize my point this way: make it a business meeting, not a sustainability meeting. But you would wonder what I meant....fine. Here's what I mean: Several years ago, I was helping a large pharmaceutical

The Sincerity Trap: How Some Leaders Misuse Emotion

The Sincerity Trap: How Some Leaders Misuse Emotion

From the toolbox of leadership, a troubling item has emerged: the weaponization of sincerity. In this story, Brene Brown and others who advocate for open hearted and vulnerable leadership are cast as the brilliant inventors who may have lost control of their creation. The mask of emotion used to manipulate

The Power of Small Time: Thinking Slow in the Fast Lane

The Power of Small Time: Thinking Slow in the Fast Lane

A quiet leadership crisis is unfolding: the erosion of time to think. Many leaders I work with in corporations around the world express a yearning for deeper thinking time amidst their busyness. They understand when I say the mantra should be to "think slow and act fast." Yet,

Reimagining Strategy: If Toni Morrison Led the Boardroom

Reimagining Strategy: If Toni Morrison Led the Boardroom

What would it look like if Toni Morrison led a strategic planning retreat? I am forever in the midst of a human experiment, on myself. The experiment is to intentionally combine ideas often kept apart. In Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson suggests putting such segregated ideas together is

5 Reasons Every CEO and Business Student Should Watch OUR PLANET

5 Reasons Every CEO and Business Student Should Watch OUR PLANET

Being sick can be a great source of inspiration. For me, I was recovering recently from Lyme disease and while couch-bound I decided to finish a series I had started, Our Planet (Netflix), an incredible, technology-enabled deep dive (literally) into our natural world. Every CEO and business student should watch