“A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession.” – John C. Maxwell In my younger days, I was an aspiring baseball player, relegated initially to the bench for a couple of seemingly endless seasons. One coach I remember distinctly used to tell us ‘bench-riders’ that we could never just sit there if we really wanted … Read more
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” – Max De Pree It seems like every conversation I hear these days is about the challenges of virtual communication and leadership. In the pre-pandemic days, I focused on scheduling “face-to-face” … Read more
I didn’t always understand what a great culture looks like. In fact, as a young West Point cadet and later as an Army officer, I only had a vague notion of what a culture was at all. We had a set way of doing things, to be sure, but it was pretty much taken for … Read more
Listening can feel harder to do than ever. That seems even more true in a world where many of us are still ‘socially-distanced’ and dealing with online-only ‘remote teams.’ Now more than ever we can use a tool for better listening that will cut through all the noise. There’s always going to be outside distractions. … Read more
Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation. — Mark Twain One of my favorite Aretha Franklin songs is “Call Me” (1970), where she poignantly sings to the person she loves to stay connected while they are apart by calling her. And, in this … Read more
“Yes! Fourth star. Back to back. Congrats to the record breakers on the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT), an incredible team that’s always pushing themselves—and the rest of us—to be even better.” — President Barack Obama Tweet, July 7, 2019 If you wanted to see what world-class soccer looks like, the U.S. Women’s Team showed … Read more
