The Value of the Vision
A little known act during World War II highlights the value of vision for our teams, and why we should treat it like a precious metal.
Big Hammer or Small Blade? What it Really Takes to Achieve Your Goals
If you want to achieve your goals, take a lesson from this craftsman, who turns chunks of gnarly wood into things of beauty.
Lost in the Jungle: 5 Questions to Ask Before Launching Your Team
Before launching our teams on any new project, there are five questions we should have answers to so they don’t get lost in the jungle.
Like Geese in a Row – What We Forget About Leadership
There’s something about leadership we can sometimes forget, a line of paddling geese in a row I saw this morning illustrated that point perfectly.
Authentic Leadership: Ornamental Hermits and Why We Should Avoid Them
In the middle of the 18th century in Europe, it was fashionable to have your own personal hermit. Sounds crazy, I know, but there it is. How did this come about, and more importantly, what can it tell us about authentic leadership? I was hoping you’d ask…
Are You a Potential Leader? 7 Ways to Get Noticed
Are you a potential leader who’s just looking for an opportunity? Do you think you have what it takes, and just need others to notice your leadership ability? If so, this video is for you. Today we’ll talk about seven things you can start doing today that will get you noticed as a potential leader […]
The Leader’s Triple-A Club: How to Navigate the Hazardous Highways of Leadership
Not long ago, my son called me from Oregon. He was driving some friends to the airport when his car suddenly quit and wouldn’t restart. Beyond attempting to diagnose the problem over the phone, there was little I could do to help from where I was in Minnesota. The good news was that we were […]
Visionary Leadership: When Social Proof Fails
What is visionary leadership? In 1921, an explorer and naturalist named William Beebe was trekking through the jungle in Guyana. He came across a large colony of ants marching along a path that they had made. Curious, he followed the little ant highway to see where they were going. After a quarter mile of climbing […]
Keeping Your LeaderShip Afloat: 4 Ways to Get Your Head Above Water
Does it sometimes feel like your attempts at leading are like, oh, I don’t know, paddling a half-submerged pumpkin down a river? Last weekend I had the privilege of watching people attempt to do exactly that. Join me for a video of what happened, and some thoughts about how to keep your LeaderShip afloat, even […]
Howling at The Moon: One Way to Handle Criticism
It can be tough to handle criticism. As leaders we need to be open and ready to listen to the good, the bad, and the ugly. How we respond to that criticism after listening can take many forms. The story is told of a man out walking with Abraham Lincoln one day.
Leading Spaghetti – How to Use Your Noodle to Lead Your Team
“If you’re a leader, you don’t push wet spaghetti, you pull it.” – Bill Mauldin Bill Mauldin was a famous cartoonist for Stars and Stripes, the newspaper widely read by American GIs during World War II. It’s easy to get his metaphor about leading spaghetti, and it makes sense, sort of. But since Bill was […]
3 Ways You Might be Sabotaging Your Team’s Culture on Day 1
Your team’s culture is it’s life-blood, its soul. It’s who you are and how you interact as a group. If it’s a good one, your culture can directly contribute to increased employee engagement, rising productivity and decreased turnover. But if you are not careful, from the very first day someone new joins your team, you […]
