Leader as Light

All living organisms move toward things that are life-sustaining and away from those that are life depleting. We see this in action when the plant on our windowsill moves toward the sunlight. Light activates chemical reactions in plants and people that generate life-giving energy. This movement toward light is called the heliotropic effect. It’s a…

Healthy Leadership

We want a healthy diet, finances, emotions, and habits too,But what about healthy leadership for me and you? Whether you lead a hundred people or just three,The healthy leader’s mantra is “Team over me.” The journey toward healthy leadership starts with you,To humility and service, we must stay true. Begin with principles like love, positivity,…

A Picture Says 10,000 Words

When I spoke at an Inc. magazine-sponsored Build LIVE event in Boston, a very talented graphic facilitator, Kelvy Bird, captured my 10,000+ word presentation in this picture. Kelvy had never heard my presentation before, so she was listening, organizing, capturing, and creating this in real-time ... impressive! So, for those of you who don’t like…

Connecting

Here is an excerpt from Leadership Matters. It contains 31 daily insights to inspire extraordinary results. day 7: Connections How often do you hear people speak with envy about companies with “real heart”? Companies like Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s, Southwest Airlines, Harley-Davidson, Nordstrom, The Container Store, Apple, FedEx, Fossil and Google, to name a few.…

Fill the Knowing-Doing Gap

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The world’s most admired companies know how to stick with it. They may not have completely eliminated the knowing-doing gap, but they have certainly reduced it enough to create a significant competitive advantage. Of course, it’s nice to be recognized as one of the world’s most admired companies. However, bottom-line results are also a key…

Leadership Blind Spots: A Lesson from Seinfeld

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All the questions in the world will not help your team if you are not listening. You don’t learn when you’re talking; you learn when you’re listening. Excellent coaches are also excellent listeners and learners. Mark Twain said, “If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two mouths and one…

10 Quotes to Boost Team Execution

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Team execution is easy to talk about and much more challenging to, well, execute. So, here are 10 quotes from Stick with It to help make this leadership concept more concrete. The most important thing in business (and life) is to decide what is most important.Saying "Yes" to one thing always means saying "No" to…

Leading with Authenticity

Winning leaders are accessible and authentic. That formula for leadership success has not changed in 25 years. Here are some examples and steps you can take to step up your leadership game. For 25 years, we asked lots of clients and colleagues questions about their experiences with strategy execution (what we call "adherence"), including this…