Courage

10 Signs That It’s Time to Move On

April 24, 2012

This past weekend, my daughter and I spent some time in her room sorting through books she no longer reads. We had three piles: Keep, Donate and Memories. The “Memories” books would be put into storage—they no longer were age-appropriate, but they held sentimental value. As we sorted books, our conversation went like this: Me: [...]

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Sometimes You Just Gotta Suck It Up and Carry the Goat

March 13, 2012

We live in a Midwestern suburban area surrounded by pockets of farmland. When my son was in kindergarten, I chaperoned a field trip to The Critter Barn, an educational working farm with livestock. I grew up in a farming community. My family didn’t farm, but many of my friends did, so I’ve seen the inside [...]

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9 Questions to Help Your Team Create Vision

March 9, 2012

Think back to the last project you led. How did you begin? Were you successful getting people on board, or was it more like herding cats challenging than you’d planned? No matter what you’re leading, getting people to line up behind a vision is the first order of business when you take on a new [...]

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2 Books to Help You Make a Change In Your Life

February 29, 2012

Today is February 29th, 2012. Many people are talking today about making the most of the “extra” time that Leap Day offers. If you’re truly going to do that, though, it’s going to take intentional effort to walk a new path, and beyond that, an adjustment of your habits. Just in time for the “bonus” [...]

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Leadership and Positive Social Contagion

February 8, 2012

Are there any positive leadership stories out there anymore? Anyone? Anyone? Sometimes, I feel like Ben Stein’s economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, casting about for any story that sheds a positive light on the ability to lead with character. In the last week alone, I’ve personally heard three stories of leadership failure: [...]

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A Leadership Fail for Black Friday

November 21, 2011

As I write this, it is four days prior to Black Friday, long considered the kick-off to the start of the retail industry’s crucial holiday shopping season. Every year, Black Friday starts earlier. Now, Thanksgiving Day is the new Black Friday. Many retail chains have announced plans to open at some point on Thanksgiving Day [...]

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Do You Have a Career Bucket List?

June 17, 2011

The kids and I were on our way to a Little League game the other day when I mentioned, “Hey guys, what do you think about making a list of things to do during your summer break?” “You mean, like a Bucket List?” asked my son. “That’s a great idea!” I exclaimed so on the [...]

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Are You a Courageous Leader?

January 6, 2011

Google the words “leadership” and “courage” and you’ll get 10,500,000 search results. Clearly, it’s a hot topic. If you’re a leader, it’s likely that you don’t think of yourself as particularly brave— that description seems reserved for heroic acts, like saving someone’s life, right? But, it appears that perhaps you have more going for you [...]

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How To Accept an Apology at Work

November 16, 2010

Recently I wrote a post encouraging professionals to have an interpersonal “disaster recovery plan” for those times when they wish they could take back an unfortunate choice of words. After all, I reasoned, if you’re truly a professional then you’ll have some sort of plan for the (rare!) times you let your emotions get the [...]

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