Greg Bustin Executive Leadership Blog

As the NBA Finals unfolded six weeks ago, the Dallas Mavericks claimed the title from the Dallas Cowboys as “America’s Team.”

It seemed basketball fans everywhere – except in Florida – wanted the Mavs to win.

The reasons the Mavs captured the hearts of so many have been discussed at length.

When the Mavericks won the NBA championship over the super-star-studded Miami Heat, basketball purists hailed it as a victory for teams that understand there are few shortcuts to winning.

There’s no question you’ve got to have talent to win. In sports. In business.

Yet it takes more than talent to win.

How did a bunch of old guys and cast-offs beat a team loaded with so much All-Pro talent?

It happens more often than you might realize.   click here for more...

In the 1960s, 70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults.

Concurrent with this phenomenon – or perhaps because of it – cultural change accelerated as the unprecedented size of this group and its members’ newfound power, abundance and willingness to challenge conventional thinking reshaped music, fashion, societal norms, education, politics and the workplace.

Some of this change was refreshing and helpful.  Some was not.

At the time, differences between Boomers (an endearing term applied years later) and their more conservative parents were explained as The Generation Gap.

At the core of the generational differences was a belief codified as “Don’t trust anyone over 30.”

Well, my friends, a gap is back.  And it’s inside your organization.  click here for more...

Just 24 months ago, most companies around the world were having good years.

I saw this first-hand as I spoke to groups of executives in the Netherlands, Canada and throughout the U.S.

Sure, not all companies were doing well. Some were just getting by. Yet for many, 2008 was a banner year. Companies in operation for decades were posting record revenues and record profits.

Leaders were understandably pleased with the results. To what, I would ask, do you attribute this stellar performance? Great leadership, the executives would invariably reply – with tongue only partly in cheek.

But at some point in 2008 – earlier in the year for some organizations, later for others – revenue growth began to slow for companies that a few months earlier had generated impressive financial results. By the first quarter of 2009, growth had stalled. By the middle of 2009, sales had slowed to a trickle. Prices were slashed. Shifts were cut. Wages were frozen. Furloughs were initiated. Positions were eliminated and people were fired.

Flat became the new Up. What happened?  click here for more...