The name "Left Lane Consulting" has left many people puzzled, wondering if they should hire me. Am I making a political statement? Do I only want to work with people in organizations if they lean to the left? If I am on the left will I be too touchy-feely; too "liberal" to support the direction of a business? The answer to all of these questions is NO; I am not making a political statement, I will work with people of any political persuasion, and while I am committed to the importance of people and human behavior in organizations I have not been called touchy-feely in many, many years and even then it was just someone's way of avoiding the work by devaluing what I do.

The simple truth is that Left Lane Consulting is the product of a road trip with my son. As the story goes, I was driving my son back to college in New York State from Ohio. Knowing that I was interested in making a career move my son asked me what I was going to be when I grew up. I turned the question on him to see if he had any ideas. Given the specific timing of this road trip, September, 2004, my son suggested I run for President of the US (he leans a little on the left - so you can understand his suggestion at the time). Willing to consider any idea we began to discuss my political platform. In order to insure the quality of the platform we decided we needed some success criteria. My platform needed to be clear and concrete; it needed to be something that a majority of people could relate to and appreciate; it needed to be practical and it needed to send a bigger message. As luck would have it, just after the criteria were set I found myself stuck and angry behind a slow driver in the left lane of the highway, and the rest is history. My platform to become President became "getting slow drivers out of the left lane of traffic". It met our criteria. It was clear and concrete, a lot of people can relate to it, it is practical, and believe it or not it does have a bigger message associated with things like; performance and achievement, behaving offensively versus defensively, being aware of what is happening around you - the bigger picture, and being focused on self and others versus only on self.. The platform had potential but we quickly came down to earth (where the rubber meets the road) and realized we did not have time to generate the campaign financing required to run in 2004. It was clear however that if the platform had the potential to take me to the Oval Office of the White House, it could certainly be a foundation for a consulting business in the Rectangle Office in the Grayish/ Green House (on a cul-de-sac in Cincinnati, Ohio). If consulting does not work, there is always 2008.