A young freshman cadet hurried down the hallway, running late for his next class at the military academy. Turning a corner, he suddenly collided with another student. Sprawled on the ground, he looked up and winced when he saw the derisive smirk on the face of the upperclassman he had just run into. As expected, …
Geoff Brenner is currently the president and CEO of TPC, a spin-off organization of Healthcare Coalition of Texas—the parent company that Geoff led as president & CEO from 2008 until its merger with TPC in 2014. Prior to becoming president and CEO, Brenner served as senior vice president and vice president of Business Development, and …
As a healthcare leader, you understand the critical importance of improvement. In all aspects of the healthcare industry, you are always seeking improvement, whether it be more efficient methods, greater financial margins, better quality of care, or simply the daily forward progress of an individual patient’s health concern. Improvement makes the healthcare world go round. …
There are many advantages and disadvantages of ‘running with the pack.’ Just a few of the many perceived advantages include encouragement, protection, pacing, conserving energy by drafting, knowing the position and potential strategies of competitors, and avoiding risk. The most highly successful participants, in sports and in all areas of life, run with the pack …
My new book, Presidential Leadership: Learning from United States Presidential Libraries & Museums is published and available on Amazon! Here are a few things people are saying: “Should you not have the time, energy, or money to travel to the presidential libraries and museums around the country, reading Dan Nielsen’s book is …
Today’s article is the ninth in a series learning from the book by Paul Smith, Lead With A Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. In chapters 15 and 16, the author provides excellent advice and riveting stories that leaders can use to motivate, inspire, and build courage among team members …
Today’s article is the eighth in a series learning from the book by Paul Smith, Lead With A Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. In chapter 14, the author tells an impactful story about a talented and highly successful CFO named Sara who, along with her team, completed a company-wide, …
Today’s article is the seventh in a series learning from the book by Paul Smith, Lead With A Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. Have you ever felt distant, or aggressively competitive, or even had a downright dislike for someone, only to find out later that you have things in …
Today’s article is the sixth in a series learning from the book by Paul Smith, Lead With A Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. In chapter 9, Smith does an excellent job of making the case that company values, explained and frequently reinforced by memorable stories, are far more effective …
“If you see things the right way, losses are opportunities to change and improve.” – John Maxwell
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 pride when we experience failure. As leaders, we’re “supposed to” be successful. We’re “supposed to” have it all together. We’re not supposed to lose.
But we all lose sometime….
...Today’s article is the fifth in a series learning from the book by Paul Smith, Lead With A Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. The book is available wherever bestselling books are sold. In chapter six, titled “Define Customer Service Success and Failure,” Paul Smith does an excellent job of …
As a leader, how easily do you admit weakness or inadequacy? How often do you ask for help? Are you tempted to shelter your ego and muscle through difficulty on your own?
In a blog post this week, speaker, author and leader Michele Cushatt wrote about a recent experience she had that forced her to confront her own weakness and admit that even though she is a leader, she too has moments of need.
In her post Michele shares this piece of wisdom for every leader…
...Today’s article is the fourth in a series learning from the book by Paul Smith, Lead With A Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. The book is available wherever bestselling books are sold. What if, following a meeting and discussion with your team, each member sought you out or sent …
Today’s article is the third in a series learning from the book by Paul Smith, Lead With A Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. In chapter two, titled “Set a Vision for the Future,” Smith recounts a modified version of the well-known folktale of a woman asking three different construction-site …
In a recent article on Inc.com, author Les McKeown shared “The Most Important Leadership Skill You’ll Ever Learn.” So what is this critical skill? It’s a skill that lays the foundation for consistently good decision-making: pattern recognition.
According to McKeown,
“What differentiates serially-good-deciders from the rest of us is pattern recognition. This is the ability to see the generic and lasting patterns that underpin localized and ephemeral data, and which form the unseen framework around which lasting success is built.”
...Today’s article is the second in a series learning from the book by Paul Smith, Lead With A Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. In chapter one, author Paul Smith does a great job of setting the stage and laying the foundation for the relevance of his book by …
I read an excellent blog post yesterday from highly respected leader and author John Maxwell, and I couldn’t help but want to share it with you today. One line in particular really stood out to me: “Leaders motivate themselves internally rather than depending on external incentives.” Wow. That is such a great …
In a recent interview, I asked Bruce Lawrence, the President and CEO of Oklahoma’s INTEGRIS Health system, to share about some of his organization’s current and future strategies. Lawrence said, “What comes to mind is the work that we’ve been doing over the past year to develop a clinical integration network. Basically it’s a way …
Today’s article is the first in a series learning from the book by Paul Smith, Lead With A Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. As all great leaders know, storytelling is a very important and highly effective leadership tool. Leaders of many of the most successful organizations in the world …
In the first chapter of his book It Worked For Me: In Life And Leadership, retired General Colin Powell describes the critical importance of each person in an organization knowing their purpose. “Followers need to know where their leaders are taking them and for what purpose.” While “mission,” “goals,” “strategy,” and “vision” are …