I have had a hard year. I won’t go into all the reasons why, but to name just a few… My wife accepted a big job in DC, and I’ve been trying to live productively in two places 2000 miles apart. One of our kids was diagnosed with a lifelong auto-immune condition. Another struggled to … Continued
Last week, I wrote about Dolores the PhD science student, and the power that her tenured leadership lab researcher had over her teaching assignments, research and future career. Dolores spoke (her) truth to his power. I promised that I’d share the sequel. If you consider times when you perhaps challenged authority, you might anticipate that … Continued
I have never seen a time like this in 25 years of executive coaching and organizational development. I’m hungry to hear from you about any of these three points: (1) What I think I’m seeing; (2) A working hypothesis about it; and (3) A prescription or two. What I think I’m seeing. There is a … Continued
Fr. Tim Shannon, of blessed memory, had an amazing ability to inspire – and raise money – with stories. And he could tell the same story – with the exact same words – over and over. I must have heard him 50 times say, “I told Mike Gill, my admissions director, that I wanted more … Continued
How do you think about humility? And. . . false humility? Maybe you share my ambivalence. Consider when YOU last received public or strong private praise. How was it? What was conjured, and how can you BEST relate when you’re receiving praise? It’s not just about you but also about how you lead! Denial … Continued
Our research at LeadingX2 unequivocally tells us that Open Communication is the number one driver of the quality of paired relationships. Remoteness, thanks to Covid, amplifies a life lesson: STOP TEXTING AND EMAILING ABOUT HARD STUFF!!!!!! I scream this in all caps to evoke how one-way communication like this can feel. Doesn’t it grate on you? … Continued
For 22 years, I have signed off Read 2 Lead with the line, “lead with your best self.” It implies the obvious: often we lead with something other than our best! This closer implies, quite intentionally, that in some sense we have multiple selves. My friend and coach Cathy Raines introduced me to Shirzad Chamine, … Continued
warning: this one’s passionate, fact-based, but a bit long 🙁 Everyday Leadership definitionally asserts: everyone can lead. In our representative democracy, this is a tautology: citizens not kings are leaders. One of the complaints I hear a lot is that elected leaders are more like elected . . . followers, “with their finger in the … Continued
[I am going to write about Martin Luther King, Jr. next week.] My friend Berke’ Brown shared some psychological research that stuck with me. It showed how having multiple identities strengthens a person’s psychological resilience. So, for example, if one identities as an athlete, a lesbian and a humanitarian; and also identifies as a Detroiter, … Continued
“Hear me. Love me. See me.” To which I would add, “shall we?”