Who Are You Comparing Yourself To?
I grew up in a very artistic family. Two of my three siblings have fine arts degrees, and my brother still makes a living in a creative field. My mom can sew anything and has had strangers ask if they could buy the wall hangings she creates. My dad could build...
Living Systems and High-Impact Listening
Today’s post was originally published here on September 28, 2015. Everyone who has been through PILOT/LEAD 365 has spent time in jail—the Ottawa County jail—as a setting to learn about living systems. A living system is any group of people who spend time together and...
How to Rock Your Next Public Speaking Opportunity
(This post was first published here on September 21, 2015.) Public Speaking! Yikes!! For many people, public speaking is more feared than death! All you have to do is avoid it, right? The problem is that public speaking is an important skill for organizational...
Sacrifice
Your team knows you care about them by your level of willingness to sacrifice and serve them. The year must have been around 1980. There had been an unexpected significant increase in the volume of our business, and it hit us in the heart of the summer vacation...
Endings and Beginnings
This is a season of endings and beginnings for many of us. September sometimes feels like a mini-New Year to me, with the end of summer and the start of a new school year. Just last week, we wrapped up a LEAD 365 cohort, and we are kicking off four new cohorts this...
Big Engine, Big Transmission
(This post was first published here on March 7, 2016.) Last week I shared with you how the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, has influenced my life. I promised that in this week’s posting I would share how the 80/20 rule has impacted our design and delivery of LEAD...
O-Rings and Marshmallows
Today's post was originally published here on February 29, 2016. One of my favorite philosophies for leadership is the Pareto Principle. I don’t think we talked about this principle in class so this may be a new topic to you. I want to explain this important concept...
Vision and the Need for Hopeful Belief
Frank Sinatra first sang the following words back in 1959: Just what makes that little old ant think he can move a rubber tree plant everyone knows that ant, can’t move a rubber tree plant But he’s got high hopes He’s got high hopes He’s got high apple pie in the sky...
Five-Minute MBA
(This post was first published here on October 26, 2015.) In my last post I shared that we now open our teaching on business acumen with the simple belief that value wins the day. I wrote that it is critical that business leaders understand the basics of business even...
How To Succeed in Business? Value Wins the Day
(This post was first published here on October 19, 2015.) I have a key belief that affects the way I live. I believe the basic premise of business is to bring real value to the world and then be compensated for that value, usually in the form of money. This is the...