Kent Blumberg

Who are you?

"Who would you be if you had no roles in life? Would you still be yourself?"

-- Thomas J. Leonard, The Portable Coach: 28 Sure Fire Strategies For Business And Personal Success, Scribner, 1998, page 315.

Top 12 ways to restore your work/life balance

So you took the test and have realized that you are a workaholic.  Or the most important other person in your life has convinced you that you behave like a workaholic.  And you want to do something about it.  Here are 12 ideas for beginning that restoration project.

How Consumers Union built customer trust after making a huge mistake

When your organization makes a mistake, what do you do?  One of my hero organizations, Consumers Union (CU), made a huge mistake in January.  But the way they responded to their mistake has deepened my loyalty to them, rather than the other way around.

Praise and recognition at work

Jeffrey Zaslow writes in "The most-praised generation goes to work" about the how much praise 20-somethings need.  In "In praise of less praise," he follows up with a counter view.

In this article, I'll summarize Zaslow's key points and then sort out what I think it means for you, the business leader.

Employees as Volunteers

The textbook for last week's coaching clinic included the following quote, attributed to Jerry Kouzas and Barry Posner:

"To get a feel for the true essence of leadership, assume everyone who works for you is a volunteer."

What difference would that assumption make to your leadership approach?

Inclusion is good for business

I am a member of Jones Partners, a group of professionals striving to increase collaboration between the Houston business community and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University.  Last night, as part of the Partners' Thought Leadership Series, we had the opportunity to hear from Larry Stuart and Subha Barry about why diversity and inclusion matter to business.

Personal Ethics

Do you have a personal ethics statement, detailing how you deal with the world?  I recommend adopting one.  It can provide a touchstone in times of stress, a compass to keep you headed in the right direction.

Here's my personal list.  What's on your list?