Thought For The Week: Fail Forward Faster!
Mistakes are inevitable, 100% unavoidable (unless you bury yourself in a hole and do absolutely nothing, which, ironically, I would also consider a mistake), and completely desirable. Mistakes don't illuminate our weaknesses, they clear the path to our...
The Butterfly Moment: When My Circumstances Exceeded My Skillset
And the day came when the demands of my leadership exceeded my skills as a leader. I suppose it had to happen sometime. Have you ever reached one of those moments? It's like running off the end of the road into uncharted territory. There's nothing to rely on. Nothing...
Thought For The Week: Hollywood Advice
Do you know that saying among performance artists that goes: There are no small parts. Only small actors. Do you know what that actually means? Apparently I didn't. I assumed that it meant some actors are physically smaller than others, but an actor friend of mine...
Eating My Own Dog Food: A Thought on Irony
Sometimes, the hardest thing we have to do is follow our own advice. Live our own teachings. Or, as a past colleague used to say: "Eat our own dog food." You may recall my blog post a few weeks ago about how important and valuable it is as a leader to smile. Well, to...
Thought For The Week
If I could write or take claim to a song about the courage of personal leadership, of all the songs I've heard and loved, I wish I could have written Nothing More by the Alternate Routes. There's a particular phrase in there that reads: Tell me what it is that you see...
An Opportunity to Lead an Extraordinary Life
Jacques Cousteau once said, “If you have the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, you have no right to keep it to yourself.” Notice the words he used. He didn’t say, "if you have the opportunity to live an extraordinary life.” He didn’t say, “the opportunity to...
Thought For The Week: How Would You Have Answered?
Speaking at a conference last week, I had the opportunity to ask a room full of about eighty people the following question: Are you living an extraordinary life? Of the eighty, only about six people raised their hands. To the rest I then asked: What's the difference...
An Underused, Essential Tool for Leadership
This blog may read as trite at first, but I assure you it’s not. It’s an essential behavioral tool for your journey as a leader. That tool is this: Smile! Hear me out! Smiling breaks down more barriers and opens up more doors than any other tool in your toolbox....
Thought for the Week
As I travelled more than 5,000 miles over two weeks meeting and visiting with family old and new for our summer vacation, I came across this quote from Alice Walker and found it quite inspiring. Have you ever found yourself powerless? Hmmm, could this be the reason?...
Leaders MUST Be Able to S.A.I.L.
A point you may have heard me mention at one time or another is the need for leaders to S.A.I.L. That is: Situationally Adjust, Inspire and Learn! Like a sailboat needs wind, opposition, and challenge to sail, so do leaders. Our job as leaders is not to create a...
