Chip Conley

Necessity is the mother of invention. And, midlife (and later) is the midwife of intergenerational collaboration. I want to point out an interesting trend that may warm your heart. I was recently talking with my friend and entrepreneurial mentee, Dana. She told me the following:

If you haven’t seen Ashton Applewhite’s TED talk, I highly recommend it. But, if you want to understand her heartbeat and why she sees the time is right for an anti-ageism movement, you ought to read this book. Originally self-published, it became a hit and has led her to a worldwide speaking tour.

During the past two days, I’ve introduced my PEAK organizational model as well as outlined the first four practices that can help you to “be all you can be” as a leader. I sum-up this series with the final four leadership practices.

Happy 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Over the next two days, I will make my PEAK organizational theory real and prescriptive by introducing eight practices that can help you become a peak-performing leader, which will hopefully help you better navigate these challenging times.

When in doubt, write a book. That’s been my leadership practice for the past 22 years. I have published five books, a few of them bestsellers. But, the one that may be most meaningful to me is “PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow,” and I think it’s quite topical at this particular time in our challenging economy.

This is the fourth in my series of five Monday video posts focused on leadership lessons during challenging times. Today’s post focuses on how to address a subject that often creates emotions like anxiety and shame.

“I don’t know.” Just uttering those words brings back a sense of shame from childhood. Feeling dumb. As a Boy Scout, I was taught to “Be Prepared.” Not knowing suggests you weren’t properly prepared.

The second installment of our weekly book club comes from the section of the MEA Library called “What Does It Mean to Become an Elder?” and highlights San Francisco gerontologist Louise Aronson and her bestselling book, “Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life.”

People ask me, “Am I optimistic about the future?” I guess it depends upon how we define “future?” When United Airlines announces yesterday that airline traffic in the first two weeks of April was down 97% from last year and the airline now expects to fly fewer passengers in all of May than it flew in a single day during the same month last year, I freak.

Eight years ago, Mick Jagger said this about the Rolling Stones’ beloved song “Gimme Shelter:” “It was a very moody piece about the world closing in on you a bit...When it was recorded, early '69 or something, it was a time of war and tension, so that's reflected in this tune.