By Jeana Van Sickle Overwhelming demands for racial justice after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020, generated a surge of commitments to dismantle racist practices in the public and private sector, including investing more in racial equity and racial justice initiatives. Floyd’s tragic death set against the backdrop of a global […]
Allyship Skills
By Shannon Peery Dozens of nonprofit professionals recently joined MCNL for a program introducing the tenets and practice of allyship. The session was the first of a four-part series facilitated by experienced DEIB consultants Ghadeer M. Garcia and Mark Logan of ALLY LAB, a program of Idealect. ALLY LAB’s programs focus on ‘behavior not belief’, […]
360-Degree Leadership for Nonprofit Professionals
By Shannon Peery This Nonprofit Navigation session explores 360-Degree Leadership, including practical tools about how to lead, wherever you are within your organization. It is presented by Dr. Brent Never, director of the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, We often think of leadership relating to the person at the top. But leadership occurs throughout organizations, […]
Gillian Power Cultivates an Authentic Life through Intentional Practice
Gillian Power (EMBA’18) has always been open to new experiences, and this has served her well at a time when paths of progression in life and career are less certain and more varied than ever before. Originally from South Africa, Power studied holistic medicine before moving to London, where she embarked on a new career […]
Why did we go to the office?
By Larry Wigger We humans love to argue; how we could have better navigated the exit from Afghanistan, to what degree the Mayor is succeeding in his personal campaign against potholes, whether the Kansas City Chief’s offensive line is now sufficiently deep to protect our precious Patrick Mahomes. In a different time, the debate du […]
Mindfulness Can Help You at Work
Charles Murnieks, Ph.D. Entrepreneurship is Grueling Although entrepreneurship can be an exhilarating experience, it is often a stressful and exhausting one! In a recent study we conducted, the entrepreneurs we surveyed worked an average of 60 hours per week, and nearly a quarter of these worked well over 70 hours a week. That’s a lot […]
Jeanie Latz, J.D. Discusses Boards, Diversity, Hostile Takeovers, and More
Jeanie Latz, J.D. consultant and EMBA adjunct instructor was interviewed by Chris Batz with The Lion Group for The Law Firm Leadership Podcast. In this episode, she discussed boards and diversity, trends, and more – including her experience during a hostile takeover attempt. Listen to the podcast and read highlights from the transcript at The […]
Journey to Leadership: Featuring Joni Wickham of Wickham-James Strategies & Solutions
In this episode, Gary O’Bannon, Executive-in-Residence at the Bloch School interviews Joni Wickham. Most people came to know Joni Wickham during her five-year stint as Chief of Staff for former Kansas City Mayor Sly James. Still more know her as the recent co-founder of Wickham-James Strategies & Solutions, a firm specializing in government relations, political […]
Journey to Leadership: Featuring UMKC Vice Chancellor Dr. Brandon E. Martin
In this episode, Gary O’Bannon, Executive-in-Residence at the Bloch School introduces you to Dr. Brandon Martin, Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics for the University of Missouri-Kansas City. To set the scene: in 2018, the school launched a national search to find a proven leader who could transform its Division I athletics program. In December of that […]
Journey to Leadership with Andy Rieger, President of Jacob Rieger Distillery Company
Andy Rieger, President of Jacob Rieger Distillery & Company, is the latest guest to appear on the Journey to Leadership Podcast hosted by Gary O’Bannon, Executive-in-Residence. During their talk, Andy describes how he and his business partner, Ryan Maybee, are navigating J-Rieger through the COVID-19 pandemic by creating new business ventures within the J-Rieger brand. […]
Bloch Idea Salon: Last Dance Series
The Bloch Idea Salon is a diverse community of intellectually curious individuals who enjoy engaging in interesting conversations on leadership, business, strategy, civic issues, and more. The salon was launched with a four part series on leadership using the Michael Jordan Documentary, The Last Dance, as a case study. The discussion was led by local […]
Journey to Leadership: 5th District Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II
Gary O’Bannon, Executive-in-Residence at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management recently applied his experience as a news reporter toward a new project: the Journey to Leadership podcast. In his most recent episode, Gary spoke with Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II. Congressman Cleaver is now in his seventh term representing Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, which is […]
Poverty, Race, and the COVID Crisis in Wyandotte County
By Patrick Sallee Health disparities are not a new concept, but the COVID crisis is shining a bright light on just how damaging these disparities are to communities of color. We are now seeing this play out, as public health officials anticipated, having a more substantial impact on low income and minority families, particularly Latino […]
Managing Virtual Teams
Gary O’Bannon With new emphasis on telecommuting comes a new reality: Teams need a strategy for communicating digitally, and leaders must adapt quickly to effectively manage their people and meetings remotely. The virtual world appears user-friendly on the surface but many have now discovered that even with great technology, it’s a world full of complexity, […]
Three Things When Reading A Study
Dr. Brian Anderson We see a lot of studies in the media and in our organizations in normal circumstances. We are seeing even more now with the pandemic’s effect reverberating across the globe. Policy makers, executives, leaders—people—are relying on some of these studies to make decisions about their personal and professional activities as we navigate […]
Five Insights: Featuring Jean-Paul Chaurand
Five Insights is an interview series featuring Kansas City business and community leaders sharing their experience and perspectives on current issues. Jean-Paul Chaurand is the Executive Vice President of the H&R Block Foundation and the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation. Prior to his work with the foundations, Jean-Paul was the Chief Operating Officer at […]
Re-Opening Pandora’s Box (safely this time)
By Larry Wigger While much is yet unknown about Covid-19, its transmission, potential immunity, or efficacy of treatments, the world’s energies are turning more and more to the business of re-starting economic engines. Here in the U.S., our libertarian roots are showing, with public angst against any extended prohibitions on business and public activities. What […]
3 Things to Watch in Supply Chains
By Larry Wigger It is nearly impossible to digest the latest coverage of Covid-19, without reading or hearing of severe supply chain disruptions. Whether it is tales of toilet paper shortages at the grocer, delays in Amazon Prime deliveries, or critically low stock of ventilators and masks, everyone is painfully aware of gaps in supply […]
Making Digital Transformations Stick
Dr. Brian Anderson The closure of campus in response to the new coronavirus world forced innovation and creativity as Bloch worked to rapidly adapt our critical processes to a fully digital workflow. It is—for the most part—working, and for many processes far better than we would have imagined. We are seeing that the digitization often […]
Leading During Tough Times
Dr. Ann M. Hackett During a recent EMBA class in HR and Leadership, we were discussing “Turnaround Leadership” by examining leaders from the early to mid-2000s, such as Alan Mulally at Ford and Anne Mulcahy at Xerox. There is much to be learned from leaders who transform their companies during economic or organizational downturns, just […]
A Different Way of Thinking
Jeanie Sell Latz, J.D. Over the past few decades many businesses have focused on the sole objective of creating shareholder value without always giving much thought to the reasoning behind this premise. It was often stated that managers had a legal duty to consider shareholders’ interests to the exclusion of other stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, and […]
“First rule of leadership: everything is your fault.” Hopper, A Bugs Life
Dan Stifter, MBA Everyone looks in the mirror and think they’re looking at a natural born leader with all the best attributes of Captain America and Wonder Woman. But according to Gallup, 82% of managers are pretty much complete failures. Less than 1 out of 10 are really qualify as “leaders.” While “managing” is different […]
People are Not Problems to be Solved
by Dr. Nicole Price Many leaders are promoted to leadership because they are amazing problem solvers as individual contributors. In fact, when asked, no fewer than half of all leaders say that they are rewarded for problem solving even in their current roles. The challenge with this disposition to problem solving is that people are […]
6 Tips to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the ability to be aware of your own emotions and the emotions of others, then use the information to manage yourself to build strong relationships. While you need to be technically proficient at what you do — whether you are an architect, attorney, engineer or business executive — it’s your emotional […]