Business people and investors will remember Thursday, May 6, 2010 for years to come. The Dow plummeted intraday nearly 1000 points amid fears that Greece would default on its debt. The sudden free-fall sparked chaos in the markets for currencies, commodities and Treasury bonds. Initially thought to be a human error - fat fingers making a trade – the cause is still elusive. Getting to the truth is harder than ever these days.

The president offered a standard response: Regulators are evaluating the situation closely “with a concern for protecting investors and preventing this from happening again.”  But how and when can he achieve these implicit promises?  Continue reading…

“It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one’s heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.”  Stephen Covey

A strong leader recognizes when he has done something wrong or made a mistake. He is willing to accept responsibility, acknowledge the wrong to the people he wronged, take all appropriate measures to fix it and ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Clean and simple. Excluded from this conversation are John Wayne and Jethro Gibbs. Both are such heroes that their view of apologies as a sign of weakness is understood and accepted.

Of course, we hear more public apologies that we do personal, intimate apologies. Are public apologies the next big thing? I hope not. Politicians, business leaders, sportsmen and other celebrities are in the media daily with some sort of mea culpa. It seems that often they do more damage than good. Continue reading…

Public company leaders need to carefully consider how to comply with recently expanded SEC disclosure rules concerning corporate governance. While meeting this year’s new requirements, directors and managers need to think broadly about how this publicly-available information will be received within and outside their organizations. 

The new disclosure requirements cover director qualifications, board leadership structure, and compensation policies (executive and non-executive). In the next few years, these new rules may leave their mark on corporate governance in publicly traded companies and beyond. 

As is often the case, the devil is in the details.  Here is some food for thought: Continue reading…

A critical issue in leadership today is substance versus style. I addressed the distinction in a blog on September 23, titled Leadership: Beyond Style and Emotion, the Devil’s in the Detail. Recently Michael Barone of the Washington Examiner uses Style vs. Substance to compare Obama’s Rapturous Style Versus Tea Party Substance.

There’s an important message in both commentaries. Substance can lead to real change while style alone has its limits. Continue reading…

The public has a solid record of making “the right calls” when it comes to assessing a variety of policy issues. In contrast, conclusions from Washington are often very different from the public’s view, heavily influenced by political trade-offs or myopic thinking.  It’s unfortunate that flawed logic and untested ideas generate bad results.

Here’s a great example described in a New York Times article on January 1, 2010 – U.S. Loan Effort Is Seen as Adding to Housing Woes. Some experts are now saying that the $75 billion program to protect homeowners has done more harm than good. Continue reading…