Loraine Antrim

How much courage do you have? Enough to lead a global team or complete a difficult IT initiative on time or come in under budget? Child's play. Don't brag too much. If you can accomplish these, you're simply par for the course. Want to demonstrate real courage…true accomplishment? Test your mettle and show uncommon leadership? Pull an Amelia. "PULLING AN AMELIA" Take fifteen hours out of your life, all alone, no sleeping, sitting in a compartment no bigger than a box, and fly across the Atlantic as you watch ice form on your plane's wings and fire shoot out of your engine's exhaust pipe. That was Earhart's day on May 20, 1932. Raw courage. Makes meeting your budget seem paltry, doesn't it? Amelia Earhart lived life with courage and grace and a bit of humility. You could do no... (more)

Cracking the IT Da Vinci Code

When non-IT folks listen to technology staff talk about IT, it's a bit like trying to crack the Da Vinci Code. It sometimes seems like a secret language that confuses and maybe even intimidate business users. But by following a few communication best practices, IT personnel can crack "the code" and have an effective and successful dialogue with their business units. Scene one: The CIO wal... (more)

Leaders Should Just Lead

One has to wonder what business leaders are thinking sometimes when they utter things that they have to know are going to send waves throughout the universe. The iconic Warren Buffett opened up his mouth in May 2009 and turned the financial world on its head. In an interview, Mr. Buffett chose to express his views of the current economic times by saying, “this is an economic Pearl Harbor... (more)

Executive SOS Signals

... _ _ _ ... OK, trivia fans, what did I just say? Ex-boy scouts, sailors, or ham-radio buffs will recognize those dots and dashes as Morse Code for SOS. And for the really trivia-obsessed, today is an SOS anniversary. On Aug 11th 1907, the first SOS distress signal was used by an American ship, the Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, NC. (You've got to love the History Channel's This Day in His... (more)

Bare Bones CEO: Linking the Outside World to the Inside

What are the bare bones minimum tasks that only a CEO should do? That question was raised by Procter & Gamble's CEO A.G. Lafley (pictured) in Harvard Business Review. Ultimately, he says the job that ONLY a CEO can do is to link the outside world to the inside. Lafley talked about how as CEO of P&G, he zeroed in on four areas that enabled him to make the outside to inside link. But if we r... (more)