Stephen J. Friedman, President

Why it is fundamental to ask “WHY?” Asking “Why?” is a doorway to opening a whole new range of possibilities in your mind and the minds...

Recently, I was having lunch with an old friend who was contemplating retirement and the next stage of his very impressive career. Our...

Whenever a large nonprofit gets into financial or other trouble, regulators and the public ask “where was the board?” Why did not the...

I particularly like working with successful executives who are facing new challenges, radical complexity, and uncertainty because of a...

Every CEO knows the importance of communicating as clearly as possible the kind of issues that should be brought to him or her for...

One way to think about much of what I do as an executive coach is to support people as they navigate what I will call “classic...

A CEO’s job is immensely complex and multicentric. It sometimes requires pursuing two or more courses that require a leader to act in...

After a long time in the weeds, higher education has become a major public issue for a host of reasons: cost, politicization of faculty...

The widespread arrival of effective Covid-19 vaccines means, although it is obviously not certain, that colleges and universities must...

Ask the head of any major personal service firm – law, consulting, accounting, health care, investment management, etc. – about their...

We constantly hear that it is lonely at the top in both a corporation and a nonprofit organization. (I have used the word “company” here...

Nonprofit boards are unique in the American organizational landscape. Although the organizations they oversee are formed as corporations,...

Most CEOs and senior executives agree that one of their most challenging tasks is choosing the right people to take on leadership...

Many leaders and participants in the nonprofit world believe that the introduction of businesslike practices have no place in an...

Here's a very good short piece from HBR on the six timeless fundamentals of leadership: https://hbr.org/2018/11/the-fundamentals-of-leade...

Whenever a major organizational scandal breaks - widespread fraud in a company or terrible behavior in a university, a prestigious...

Ask almost any CEO in America to list their three biggest challenges, and the likelihood is high that near the top will be “devoting...

Every leader has been advised to focus on how he or she “shows up,” usually accompanied by injunctions to be authentic, open, supportive...

Years ago, I had a client who was CEO of a company whose main product was a high-tech plastic that held the guidance systems in the nose...

One day about 14 years ago, I was having lunch with a friend who asked me what I was thinking of doing next. At the time, I was a content...