My friend and colleague Steve Lawler recently shared the following quote by novelist Chuck Palahniuk: “Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.” This quote really resonated with me. I have long said, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!” and …
I recently stumbled across an old email a colleague sent me a few years ago with the link to an article and the words, “You’ll love this.” She was right. The article was one written by author and speaker Jeff Haden, titled “10 Cherished Beliefs of Highly Successful People.” The full article is well worth …
I tend to be an observer, an analyzer, and sometimes—I admit—an over-analyzer. I often reflect on interactions and replay conversations in my head, wondering if I handled a situation well or said the right thing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve followed up with a friend or colleague to double check that a …
I recently stumbled across a quote I’ve heard before, though I don’t know who authored it: “Four things you can’t recover: the stone after the throw, the word after it’s said, the occasion after it’s missed, the time after it’s gone.” This got me to thinking about the last article I published, where I asked …
Last week I asked the question, “Do you seek to learn?” This week I want to ask a follow-up question: “Do you learn when you lose?” No one likes to lose. But I think leaders especially don’t like to lose. Try as we might to keep our egos out of our leadership, it hurts our …
Here is a great question to honestly and very carefully ponder! Do you intentionally and consistently seek out and learn from people who can teach you? You, like me and every human on the planet, can significantly improve in virtually 100% of every area of your life—whether personal, professional or organizational. Whether our leadership, relationships, …
Without a doubt, the answer to the above question is different for different people. Happiness is a mysterious, profound, and very personal thing that is manifested in countless ways in different stages of life for every single person on the planet. That said, obviously many people find happiness in the same things. Just take a …
I recently posed this simple but thought-provoking question to my LinkedIn followers: “If you had just 15 minutes left to live, what would you tell your children are the 3 most important things you learned about how to live a happy life?” I received over 150 responses to my question. Responses ranged from very simple …
I met Barbara Bush on a private parking lot of a large convention hotel in Orlando, Florida. I was the lead executive for a large annual national healthcare meeting and we had booked her as a keynote speaker. Secret Service agents had brought her to the hotel after we flew her on a private jet …
I don’t know about you, but most days (weeks/months/years…) I have more things I want to accomplish than I can possibly do. I like to set goals and make plans and aim high, but very often I find myself frustrated by not being as productive or as successful as I’d hoped when I started my …
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about relationships. Maybe it’s because of my recent focus on mentoring—which is all about relationship. Or maybe it’s just the normal musings of an older man who is in a season of more reflection. Whatever the reason, this has been on my mind, especially one thought I’d like to …
Last week I wrote about what I feel is the #1 thing it takes to be a good mentor. Basically, if you have learned anything during your life and career, then you have insights to share with others! But what are some key traits or qualities of great mentors? Here are 3 that immediately come …
For the past few weeks I’ve been posting about mentoring and how critical it is to learn from world-class mentors—those great leaders who’ve gone before us, as well as ordinary colleagues and peers who may just be a few steps ahead of us. But what does it mean to be a world-class mentor? How do …
Last week we took a look at 5 Benefits of Mentoring, discussing the incredible power and importance of having healthy mentoring relationships throughout your life and career. Today we’re going to look at some of the benefits of coaching and also identify the key differences between mentoring and coaching. What is coaching? An effective coaching …
I have long believed in the importance and powerful impact of mentoring. Throughout my life and career mentoring has played an important role, and as I’ve interviewed other highly-successful leaders over the years, the topic of mentoring has come up many times. Joel Allison, who recently retired as CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health, …
Habit formation is a process, not a one-time event. Changing old habits or establishing new ones requires intentional focus and repetition over an extended period of time. The truth is, every person is unique, as are the habits they form and goals they pursue. So while there are basic principles found within the habit …
In my first book, Presidential Leadership, which focuses on learning from the strengths of U.S. Presidents and identifying, improving, and leveraging your own strengths, I closed with a Call to Action that includes the following story: “In the mid-1700s Benjamin Franklin developed a personal system for cultivating his character by focusing on improving in …
As I’ve mentioned in recent articles, intentional, positive habits are the most powerful tools at our disposal for achieving greater success personally, professionally, and organizationally. If you desire greater success in any area of your life, cultivating the right habits is key. In my book, Be An Inspirational Leader: Engage, Inspire, Empower, I spend …
This time of year many of us are thinking about the habits in our lives that we want to change—or new habits we want to establish. Some habits are very easy to identify as “bad.” For example, we all know smoking is bad for us, we shouldn’t look at text messages while driving, and staying …
Habits. We all have them. We’re aware of many of our habits, but there are likely many more to which we haven’t really given much thought. It’s easy to take habits for granted and to just keep doing things the way we’ve always done them. But in doing so we miss out on the huge …