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Welcome to My Blog
Leadership check-ins @ 400 words or less—so you can keep moving forward
Lead Like a Trainer
Leadership involves more than just telling people what to do. Here are some best practices from the world of adult training design that will help you be a better leader.
Stop Trying to Be the Smartest Person in the Room
Trying to appear to be the smartest person in the room will very likely backfire on you. Want to know why?
Take a Leadership Cue From Nature: Animal World
On a recent trip to Alaska I saw and heard incredible stories of how animals intentionally develop their young for the road ahead. If they can do it, shouldn’t we?
Take a Leadership Cue From Nature: Saturation
When rainfall is high for extended periods of time, the soil eventually cannot absorb anything more. After this, everything that depends on the soil for stability and nutrition starts to rot. So what do you think happens to your leadership if you’re saturated?
Take a Leadership Cue From Nature: Earthquakes
Earthquakes are one of the most destructive forces on the planet. Most of us know what earthquakes are, but are probably less conscious of the pressure buildup that causes them. It’s never good to let unnecessary pressure build up on the most important things in your life.
Take a Leadership Cue From Nature: Static
Static comes from friction. It invisibly builds up then discharges in an instant, usually on whatever object is closest to you. It’s a nuisance, it’s frustrating and in some cases dangerous.
Take a Leadership Cue From Nature: Destructive Resonance
On November 7, 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state shook itself apart and collapsed as a result of destructive resonance. If we’re not careful, the same thing can happen to us and our leadership efforts.
Take a Leadership Cue From Nature: Entropy
Entropy, part of the second law of thermodynamics, is the concept that energy in a system will always move from order to disorder unless additional energy is applied. Meaning: Chaos reigns, unless we intentionally dethrone it.
Take a Leadership Cue From Nature: Muscle Mechanics
Our muscles are amazing. They, quite literally, move us. Improved performance only comes through properly exercising that which moves you—whether it’s your muscles or your leadership.
Take a Leadership Cue From Nature: Fatigue Failure
Metal structures that experience many on-off cycles of forces will become brittle—even when those forces are well below what the structure can normally handle. Once the metal becomes brittle, the application of even a slight force causes it to fail. The results are usually catastrophic.
Take a Leadership Cue From Nature: Series Intro
For the next eight weeks I’ll be doing a blog series called Take a Leadership Cue From Nature, using eight naturally occurring phenomena from the world around to illustrate how—if we’re not careful—we can let circumstances undermine our effectiveness. Maybe that thing we’re sensing may not be so strange after all…
Turn Your Leadership Upside-Down
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs illustrates how we tend to meet our own basic needs first. While this may be generally true, it also illustrates an opportunity for leaders to be more effective—by turning the hierarchy upside down.
Always Forward
Many parts of the human experience compel us to move backward. Fear, guilt, grudges, regret, lack of reconciliation with others (or ourselves) … there are so many reasons to look for ways to circle the wagons or retreat altogether.
Passionate vs. Emotional Leadership
Passion in leadership usually instills urgency, value and meaning into a team’s work effort. But it’s easy to equate passion and its distant cousin, emotion, to disastrous effect.
Movie Snapshot: Burnt
I’m a sucker for movies with a personal transformation story—especially in a leadership context. Not long ago I saw one that fits the bill: Burnt, starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller.