Jon Gordon, a successful leadership author, thought leader, and speaker, recently visited West Point Military Academy to speak and to interact with cadets, coaches, and the military brass. Following his visit, Jon wrote an article titled 9 Leadership Lessons from my Visit to West Point. He explains that although he was there to teach, he ended …
I It was my honor recently to serve as facilitator for a day of important discussion among a group of 10 hospital and health system CEOs. Over the years, these CEOs have developed significant trust. They clearly understand the immense and enduring power of partnership, alignment, and working together for the greater success of all. …
I learn a lot by watching the people around me. I have long been a people-watcher, and I’ve discovered that not only do I learn something about each person I watch, but I also learn something about the people around them. And often, I even learn something about myself. Today as I walked laps around …
In his book The Little Book Of Talent: 52 Tips For Improving Your Skills, Daniel Coyle discusses ‘hard, high-precision skills’ versus ‘soft, high-flexibility skills.’ According to Coyle, hard, high-precision skills “have one path to an ideal result; skills that you could imagine being performed by a reliable robot.” Soft, high-flexibility skills “have many paths to a good …
Tip number six in Daniel Coyle’s book, The Little Book of Talent, is “Choose Spartan Over Luxurious.” Coyle correctly explains that we love comfort—state-of-the-art practice facilities, oak-paneled corner offices, expensive fluffy towels, and all kinds of other luxurious creature comforts and statements of status. Coyle asserts that “luxury is a motivational narcotic: It signals our unconscious minds to give …
As a leader, your job, your responsibility, your priority is not to manage nor accept the status quo. Your job, your responsibility, your priority is to personally exemplify continuous improvement and to create and maintain a culture that encourages and supports continuous improvement. That means a culture that encourages, accepts, supports and learns from mistakes. In the chapter …
A couple of years out of high school, I had a job that I absolutely hated. The environment was everything a personal, professional, and organizational development and growth environment should not be! I did not stay long, but long enough to never, ever forget the terrible, degrading, negative-driven environment in which I worked. Even though I absolutely …
I love penetrating, thought-provoking, high-impact quotations. I constantly look for them, save them, and share them via my websites, articles, books, and presentations. In my opinion, it is hard to find a more penetrating, thought-provoking, high-impact quotation than this one attributed to Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, …
Many people want—even crave—to be leaders so that they can and will have “power over people.” Many leaders want to advance further up the leadership chain of command so that they will have ever-increasing power over people. Power, particularly perceived power over people, is very addictive. For many leaders, their addiction to perceived power over …
In the book titled Difference: The One-Page Method for Reimagining Your Business and Reinventing Your Marketing, author Bernadette Jiwa focuses on thinking differently and being a ‘difference thinker’ in order to create totally new programs, products and services. Much of what she writes is also directly applicable to leadership excellence. Consider these statements, found in the …
In the midst of significant change throughout America’s healthcare system, I can think of no better time to read and study the recently published book by Bernadette Jiwa titled Difference: The One-Page Method for Reimagining Your Business and Reinventing Your Marketing. Seth Godin, the world-class marketing guru, author, speaker, and blogger wrote the following about this …
As part of the research for my next book, titled Be An Inspirational Leader: Engage, Inspire, Empower, I am interviewing highly successful inspirational leaders from all across America. Following each interview, I contact several colleagues of the person interviewed and ask for additional perspectives regarding the leadership of the individual I interviewed. The response has been …
As a leader, you’re expected to have the answers. Whether the questions are coming from customers, clients, competitors, employees, or the media, it’s important to be equipped with the right answer at the right time. But there is something even more important for leaders than having the right answers. Michael Hyatt recently addressed this topic …
People, including current and future leaders, who truly want to grow, achieve greater success, and become better leaders, spend significant time closely observing and learning from the top performers. In the book The Little Book of Talent, Daniel Coyle writes: “We each live with a ‘windshield’ of people in front of us; one of the keys …
All leaders who aspire to achieve greater personal, professional, and organizational success should be focused on leading and teaching resilience. Resilience is what makes the difference between those who give up and those who press on and reach their goals. And that’s a very important thing. Just imagine the ramifications within your organization. Imagine what can …
A recent issue of Inc. Magazine featured a brief article titled “The Three Things Employees Really Want.” Columnist Marc Barros explained that money is nice, but what employees care about most goes far deeper than just money: Purpose. Nobody wants just a job. People want to be part of a company that is clear about …
The late John Wooden, an extraordinary leader and basketball coach, had a powerful leadership statement: “Don’t tell me what you’re going to do. Show me what you will do.” This leadership philosophy and expectation is as relevant for organizations, teams, colleagues, friends, and family as it is for individual leaders like you and me. “Don’t tell me what you’re …
“Success is a lousy teacher. It makes smart people think they can’t lose.” – Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. If that statement is true—and I believe many, if not most times it is the absolute truth—each of us should take very serious pause to closely examine the huge ramifications of that statement and that truth in our lives and …
In chapter 12 of his recent book titled, Sometimes You Win – Sometimes You Learn, John Maxwell writes the following: “To me, a mature person [and leader] is someone who has learned from losses, has gained wisdom, and possesses a strong emotional and mental stability in the face of life’s difficulties.” If you read this column regularly, …
“What are you becoming?” This is a critical question every leader should frequently ask him or herself—and answer in detail. This is also a question every leader should frequently ask each and every direct report and team member. Not only is the question critical to achieving your potential and reaching your personal and professional goals and dreams, it is …