Healthy leadership is cultivated from the inside-out. We win from within. Healthy team performance begins with healthy leader performance. Healthy leaders lead from the inside-out, making personal changes and improvements before asking their teams to do the same. The power of role modeling is true in every aspect of life. Children mimic their parents’ values,…
I had lunch this week with three inspiring men pictured here: Norman Merzger (90), Jim Atkins (81) and Larry Foster (82). Clearly, I am the only one in the photo who looks his age! These men are fully engaged in life mainly because they have a clear purpose that is outside of themselves. Their lives…
We have been fortunate to have two of our children experience the leadership of Dr. Nathan Hatch, President at Wake Forest University. Dr. Hatch is retiring after 16 years of great service and commitment to the school’s motto, Pro Humanitate (For Humanity), a calling to use our knowledge, talents and compassion to better the lives of…
Healthy Leaders intentionally use their words to get the best from themselves and others. They carefully choose words to reframe daily events. For example, they convert these typical statements into more growth-oriented, empowering ones by using "yet", "get" and "for": I do not know how to market this new product. vs. I do not know how to market…
In 7 Moments… that Define Excellent Leaders some of my favorite stories appear under a moment to invest. Here is one of them… In the late 1890s, two young men were working their way through Stanford University when, during the semester, their funds got desperately low, and they came up with the idea of engaging Ignacy Paderewski,…
The human brain is the defining aspect of our humanity. It separates us from every other life form. The gift of thought unites us. We can begin thinking about our own thinking by the time we are nine years old. Cognitive scientists at the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas…
The strength of our relationships is perhaps the greatest measure of the quality of our lives. It is also a key predictor of our sense of internal joy and contentment. Our relationships should be the place where we act our best and give our best. Strong relationships are built on two-way streets – they must…
Today's hyperactive and attention-demanding world makes reflection no easy task. Nonetheless, we still must find a way to carve out "mental space" so we can think clearly, plan, reflect, and dream. Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, expressed the value of reflection years ago, even when the world was not so information-rich and time-poor. He said,…
In Orchestrating Attitude, I discuss that all changes, whether it’s a change you initiate at work or a worldwide initiative to end poverty, start with one – one person, one thought, one word, one action. Contrary to the lyrics from a classic rock song, one is not the loneliest number. It’s the most important number! …
The more we lead, the more we work with leaders, and the more we parent, the more we see compelling parallels between leadership and parenting. Leaders are parents, and parents are leaders. They are in different settings with parallel roles. Here is an excerpt from a poem by Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D. titled, "Children Learn What They Live." As you…
