Herein lie a few words on topics that I have had the fortune, or in some cases, misfortune, to have gained some level of experience with thus far in my career. A good friend of mine – I have known him for over 30 years – recently tolerated some of my lengthy pontifications on various management and leadership topics over an adult beverage or two or six and humored me by kindly suggesting that I might actually have enough useful material to publish a book. Whether his comment was an attempt to simply silence the bloviating or actually make a serious suggestion is still something I struggle to discern.

Alas, the bookshelves of libraries, bookstores, and amazon.com are littered with books on the topics of management and leadership, many of which provide mild entertainment and little practical and useful advice on management and leadership. Those that I have encountered that are, in my best estimation, worth reading are included in my reading list for those that are interested. Producing one more book to weigh down the bookshelves and collect dust seemed perhaps not the most useful pursuit.

Instead, I have acclimated to my evolving technical surroundings and taken my pontifications to that inter-web thing that seems all the rage these days. Between these pages and blog entries, I hope to provide those that have the patience to read the material something useful that they might apply in some productive way in their own careers.

I have been in the workforce nearly three decades and became interested in management when employed in my first job. What drove that interest were frequent and illustrative examples of just what impact bad management could have on the rank and file of an organization. In short, I saw a number of what I judged to be incompetent people who were large on paychecks and small on value that they provided the organization. I thought I could do better and I wanted my opportunity.

Through trial and error (mostly error), my early career in the strictly technical ranks provided learning experiences in leadership both bad and good. I did finally have the good fortune to cross paths with some really outstanding leaders and managers, to whom I am indebted to this day for what they taught me. One of these was my mentor for eight years who provided countless, frequent and patient tutoring sessions in management, leadership, and working within large organizations. Such mentoring relationships were more prevalent in prior decades, but this was truly a rare opportunity in this contemporary culture of quarterly financial performance and free agency employment markets where the average tenure in a position is about two years. I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity.

Coupling these experiences with my academic adventures at the McGregor School at Antioch University where I earned a Master’s degree in Management, and an instilled drive for continuous learning, I have compiled a modest body of principles, understandings, and techniques that I will document here. My hope is that these will prove as useful to the reader as they have been for me.

Note that putting material out into the world on the web is in a sense always a risky affair – one can always be wrong in what they publish and the stigma of being incorrect in print is sometimes felt by authors, particularly those in technical fields, to be in effect a black mark on the soul. It is natural to evolve one’s views over time as new material is encountered and new experiences accumulated. It is also natural to once in a while get something flat wrong. It is part of being human. Because something is in print does not make it true and authoritative. The good news is that web-based media are conveniently amended to reflect corrections and enhancements as such.

Further, the ability for readers to comment on specific material in this medium is particularly useful, for it provides a direct channel to the author for communication and further exploration of the topic. I invite the world to prove me wrong in the ideas I present, for this is how I can improve the material and continue to learn and grow.