I’ve stressed over and over through this process that I’ve never felt like I was overly talented in any given area. Before I move on, I need to stress that I’m not sharing that - yet again - to diminish the value I know I’m capable of adding today; I need you to understand that every step we’ve work...
Over the last twenty-five years, Cindy and I have been extremely focused on building a knowledge network that would help us compensate for our leadership limits. Recognizing who knew what we didn’t know was the first step. Being willing to invest whatever we could, even if that was only our time, in...
I’ve mentioned barely graduating high school several times to this point. I also shared that neither Cindy or I had graduated college when we started our leadership journey (and still haven’t). While my less than stellar performance in high school was more a factor of me being bored, our lack of col...
Equipped with only a high school diploma, and having slept through far too many of my classes leading up to receiving that, I had no shortage of gaps to acknowledge - even if my ego was standing in the way early on (and maybe a little still today). Identifying the key experts I could learn from as I...
As I closed our look at Knowing Your Worth by sharing a few steps for crafting a lasting influence, I mentioned how something as silly as a complimentary email series (known today as A Daily Dose Of Leadership) that was initially meant to help our new business stay top-of-mind with the executives an...
When we’re intentional about building each of those steps into sustaining the relationships we build with our mentors, the long-term return will compound - in our lives, in the organizations we’re part of, and in ways we likely won’t see for years to come. Terry, Rod, and Kevin have all actively men...
One common thread with each of the amazing mentors I’ve interacted with to this point in my life has been that all of them have juggled incredibly busy schedules. I’m always amazed at how they’re all willing to block time to provide mentorship insight routinely - especially when they’ve seen their p...
Just in case you’re slow to catch on, like I am far too often, there’s no such thing as a self-made leader. The relationships we build, personally and professionally, are key to unlocking our potential. That said, we’ll need to be as intentional about maximizing the return on investment in relations...
Whether it’s the technical skills a new team member needs just to become competent in our respective industry, the leadership skills that are so very needed for anyone with responsibility for getting results through a team of people, or even the skills that are critical for our best do’ers to pass t...
While I’ve never named the individual who made the “fuzzy initiative” comment on my LinkedIn article, I’ve referenced it enough that I actually think he deleted it! Oh well… My intent was never to call him out directly - or I would have used his name every time I’ve referenced the comment - but to c...
I often share stories from my first few years in manufacturing, explaining how terrifying it was back then for an engineer to hover over my shoulder with his stopwatch. I didn’t understand that he was capturing the cycle time of the machine I was operating and not necessarily timing me. I guess I wa...
Cindy and I first heard Carly Fiorina speak as part of a Live2Lead event we hosted in late 2018 then we were in a small group with her in Orlando, FL the following spring. I contacted her team after that event, which led to quite a bit of interaction with her over the next year. Carly was actually t...
