The North Carolina State Bar Journal has published an expanded version of the essay, “Three Uncles at the Bar,” that I wrote on this site about a year ago.
In Search of a Professional Politician
“In Search of a Professional Politician” highlights the definition of professional identity and imagines the ways that professional politicians, as opposed to career politicians, would lead and influence the American political landscape.
Capitalism & Professional Identity
We need a bold and renewed conception of honorable business as a noble profession. The most serious challenges to American business culture can be addressed by recapturing and reclaiming two truths: businesses are led by professionals, and the primary function of business is to create value in society.
Simplicity and Complexity (Charlotte Saturday MBA Class of 2015)
Being a simple leader is a lot harder than generating and wading among complications. It almost always involves more responsibility. Paradoxically, it requires more comfort with complexity, because you have to spend time sifting the complex into simple terms. And it requires tremendous self-confidence, because in a simple leadership environment, there won’t be any question who is responsible when problems arise. But it’s what professionals do.
The Danger of a Normal Day (Winston-Salem Evening MBA Class of 2015)
Fourteen years and eleven hours ago, I was in graduate school. It was the second year of a three-year program, I was getting married in three months, and I expected that Tuesday to be like any other. During my first class, whispers emerged about something going on — a bombing, I heard first. By the break between classes, there was a TV set up in the student lounge and we had started to learn about planes hitting the World Trade Center. The Pentagon was hit during my second class, and rumors about other attacks were rampant.
Creative Business (Charlotte Saturday MBA Class of 2014)
When we really get it right, the holy grail of leading creatively is that we increase the value experienced by the community around us. Put a different way, we enable those around us to flourish. To some extent, this is aspirational: it feels a little pie-in-the-sky. But we are obligated toward this aspiration.
Mastering Business (Winston-Salem Evening MBA Class of 2014)
You haven’t mastered the disciplines of business administration – no person has. You have, we certify today, mastered the art of learning about business administration. Graduation isn’t an occasion to mark full formation, but rather an occasion to mark that you’ve found the work to do within: to occupy yourself with your own goals for learning and development.