This morning I told my life story to 5 men I'm friends with. I revealed pieces of my past very few have seen. I took a risk. I told the truth. It was an act of revelation. There is power in revelation. We show who we are and who we've been. We step from the shadow of shame into the light of liberation. We go from hiding in our history to defying it. We set our story free from swirling insecurities. We step towards freedom. We can start to author our future instead of repeating our … [Read more...]
Here’s A High Value Proposition
July 25, 2011 by
Thirty years ago we had 1 hour of national news a day. We had 3 stations to choose from. We watched either Cronkite, Chancellor or Reasoner at 7pm (East Coast) on ABC, CBS, or NBC. If you watched TV at 7pm, you were probably watching the news. Nothing else was on. There was competition between the national news organizations at 7pm. There weren't many outside competitive threats because the choice was news or news. The competition that existed drove up quality. The news outlets … [Read more...]
Bye-bye, Borders!
July 20, 2011 by
This morning I was reading about Borders Bookstore on Inc.com. They are closing the book on Borders. Their remaining 399 stores are closing their doors. What happened? They couldn't escape their own gravity. Borders evolved to be the Wal-mart of bookstores. They delivered an expansive inventory that small shops couldn't compete with. They had the same impact on mom and pop book shops that Wal-mart has had on small retailers. The small shops died. The small shops couldn't compete on … [Read more...]
Understanding the gravity of the (business) situation
July 18, 2011 by
Gravity is generated by objects that have mass. The greater the mass, the stronger the pull of gravity. The stronger the pull, the more it influences everything within it's reach. We float weightlessly when there is no gravity. We are like immovable boulders when there is a lot gravity. The longer a business is around the more likely it is to accumulate mass. The mass accumulates in the form of people, processes, culture, habits, inventory, customers, etc. As mass accumulates, so does … [Read more...]
A simple way to be a better leader – Pt 3
July 13, 2011 by
I squatted down to put Sophie, my 4 year old niece, on the pew. She sat down. When she leaned back she cracked her head on the seat back. It was like a softball hitting a wooden bat. She looked at me quizzically. The expression asking, "What should I do?" Her eyes showed she was leaning towards crying. I had a moment to decide. I'm just starting to get used to being around kids. God's been giving me practice. Good thing. My two new babies will arrive in about 3 … [Read more...]
A simple way to be a better leader – Part 1
July 12, 2011 by
In the past few days I saw a simple truth about the language of leadership. Ned and Nancy were trying to get their son to get into the pool. Their son, Niles, was scared of the water. "Do you want to get in the pool?" asked Ned. "Do you want to try to stand on the first step?" Niles froze at the decision point. He was anxious and uneasy. His answers came non-verbally. Niles stopped and backed away from the pool's edge. Parents are leaders. The leaders were putting the child … [Read more...]
Follow the leader
July 8, 2011 by
I walked down the row of cubes. Someone from my team grabbed me. "They did it again.", they said. We had another team that we worked with. We didn't see eye to eye. We didn't have mutual respect. It seemed each team thought the other team was a bunch of idiots. I got fired up. I'm insulted the other team. I'm sure I "should" all over them. - They should do this, They should do that. I'm damn certain I cursed. I'm sure I poured gasoline on the fire. The fire burned higher. The … [Read more...]
Do you lead by example?
July 7, 2011 by
My mentor, Phillip, asked, "Where'd this thing with you putting your hands in the pockets come from?" I didn't know the answer. It appeared that I just picked up a habit of sticking my hands in my suit pockets. And I didn't know why. A no-no in the world of presenting is hands in pockets. John, the other trainer I was working with said, "I'll take responsibility for that." It turned out that he has the habit of sticking his hands in suit pockets. The week before I spent 40 hours in … [Read more...]
Leadership is a contact sport
July 6, 2011 by
I don't enjoy playing basketball shirts vs skins. I just don't enjoy sweaty men pressing and bumping into me. It affects my commitment level. I don't play as hard. It's not fair to my team for me to play and not be committed to the contact required of the game. When shirts are on, I'm in. I'll throw my elbows around with the best of them. Shirts off, I should walk away. Adam said, "That's not easy." I asked Adam whether being a good leader is easy or hard. He said, "Hard." One of … [Read more...]
The problem with the perfect plan
July 2, 2011 by
I was listening to Car Talk on NPR. Click and Clack were following up with a caller from an earlier show. The caller wanted to transport a chicken coop via the highway on a snowmobile trailer. Click and Clack told him it wouldn't work. They were right. Chicken Coop guy's perfect plan was changed in real time as they tried to implement it. They managed to move the coop with the snowmobile trailer. But not where they needed to move it. The snowmobile trailer died in town after a valiant … [Read more...]
