Fear of Failure – Part 2

In my last post I shared some of my learning over many years about my overly cautious attitude toward failure. In a nutshell, I was way too conservative over much of my life, which led to learning less and achieving less than I might have otherwise if I had been more willing to risk failure.…

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Fear of Failure – Part 1

You’ve probably heard about people who work with people who are dying and, in turn, learn a lot about life by listening to regrets and words of wisdom. One of these people is Bronnie Ware—an end of life nurse who chose to write down what her patients shared. This eventually became a book: The Top…

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Leaning Into Healthy Conflict

When you think back on your year in LEAD 365, do you remember the number one thing I hoped all participants would learn? If LEAD 365 alums could only be better at one thing when compared to non-alums, do you remember what I hoped that one thing would be? My hope is that all LEAD…

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Diversity in West Michigan Part 3

This is the third of a three-part posting I’m doing on diversity in West Michigan. First let me say that I am no expert on diversity. However I am very interested in it and feel it is an important issue to explore if our community is to be among the best in the country. As…

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Diversity in West Michigan Part 2

Last month I started sharing my long-time thoughts on diversity. Today and next week I want to continue sharing my thoughts about what I believe is an important topic if West Michigan is to become the Silicon Valley of leadership. As I mentioned in my first posting on this topic, I’ve wrestled deeply for fifty…

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Diversity in West Michigan

I have a client who has become a fast-friend over the past two years since he’s lived in West Michigan. He really likes what we are doing at Leading by DESIGN and agrees with us that West Michigan could be the hotbed of great leadership in the country. It’s really good to have this affirmation…

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Looking Back and Forward—A New Year Ahead

It’s that time of year again. The start of a new year, right on the heels of the closing of last year. I once heard someone say that looking back is a good thing, but probably only in the same ratio that the rear view mirror takes up in your field of vision when driving.…

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The Value of Business and the Business of Value

Today’s posting is a little different. Most of our topics fall clearly into one of our three main categories of topics from LEAD 365: 1) Being a person worth following; 2) building a great team; or 3) creating clarity around purpose, vision and value. Today’s topic is part of LEAD 365 but doesn’t fit so…

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An Unfair Advantage, Part 2

(This post was first published here on May 29, 2017.) Last week I shared some observations I’ve noticed over many years of studying leaders regarding what gives some of them an unfair advantage over others. Here’s a reminder of what I shared: These leaders don’t worry about who gets credit for significant accomplishments. These leaders…

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