In times of (and don’t you just love these fancy phrases?) increased ambiguity and significant dislocation, it’s an opportune time to build your personal brand — substantially, properly and, down the line, profitably.

Let me explain how.

In any period of uncertainty or high ambiguity, people look for the adult in the room. The substantial, value-add person who knows what to do, how to act, where to be, to what extent to worry.

Essentially, everyone is looking for the “who” who will provide the what, where, when, why and how.

To be blunt, they want to be a follower and…

There is more than just a virus flying around right now.

Misinformation, significant ambiguity, ignorance, folly, poor decision making.

It’s a stressful time — although I don’t need to tell anyone that — and the lack of an adult in the room on many issues has been astounding.

What are the main emotions you are feeling as this continues to go on?

I’m feeling sorrow and I’m feeling disappointment, about the lack of a “virtual” adult in the room making good decisions, doing the right thing and guiding people who need to be guided.

I do believe people need to…

A number of years ago, I took my then young family to our local county fair.

It was one of those dog days of summer, full of all sorts of bad food like cotton candy and deep fried Oreos. We rode all sorts of bad rides, held baby chicks, looked at various displays and competitions. The ideal summer evening.

There was one particular ride that, although I don’t remember it’s real name, became known within our family as the Vomit-Tron. I’ll leave that to your imagination.

There was one operator of the Vomit-Tron, a wonderfully droll guy, who would mumble…

When I ride my motorcycle on chillier days, I rarely notice how cold I am when zooming around. It is only when I come to a stop and begin to warm up slightly that I realize just how frigid I felt in motion. Most riders can relate to this sensation I’m sure, but the idea behind this phenomenon is more universal.

When you’re in the middle of tumult it can be difficult to center yourself and take stock of how severe your predicament is. In business, we have all rallied around employees and clients who are tough to deal with.

…

As I sit here in mid-March 2020, I can’t help but think of Sesame Street.

Now, you might suppose that’s an odd thing to be thinking of given the current state of things. But you might remember that in the old Sesame Street shows, they would always say, for example, “today’s show is brought to you by the letter X and the number 3.

Influencer is a word that many associate strongly with the rise of social media platforms and their stars.

Most people my age can name a few of these new-age influencers, like the Kardashians or Paris Hilton. Web-savvy folks under 30 almost certainly have a wider range of names they associate with the term. Prior to social media, influencers were found elsewhere; Oprah comes to mind for TV influencing especially.

What all influencers have in common is their ability to leverage an effective personal brand.

The influencers I mentioned above certainly have their own convictions and ideas to spread, but they…

Even if they deny playing favorites or viewing employees by tiers, every manager or supervisor keeps a mental label on the kinds of folks they corral.

Some are superstars, others are works-in-progress, a few may be the old-reliables, so on and so forth. The best leaders don’t confuse their labels with judgments for judgements sake, but rather use them as a way to best know the capabilities of their team and whom to allocate bandwidth to or from.

My favorite trifecta of these labels was introduced to me by one of my business partners and friends, Ron Gibori. …

At the beginning of the year, I always strive to have a Lakers Start. It’s great when it happens and opens the door for possibilities throughout the rest of the year. Trial, error, experimentation, fun. It’s more challenging and more pressure when it does not.

Now, what is a Lakers’ Start?

At the beginning of my career, and I’m showing my age with this one, we had a saying around the office about the Lakers basketball team. …