Sustaining Qualification

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...

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Building a Qualified Network

I’ve often heard the phrase, “Your network is your net worth.” While I haven’t spoken to that from a financial perspective to this point, the strength we can each develop through great professional relationships will definitely yield success in just about any aspect of our lives that we’re willing t...

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Influence Over Credentials

Throughout this look at the strength we can each gain by building great professional relationships, I’ve referenced several of the amazing leaders I’ve had the privilege of learning from. I’ve also worked with some absolutely brilliant people over the years. That said, those two traits didn’t always...

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Mentoring as Qualification

One of the biggest hurdles I’ve seen people deal with as they’ve moved into new roles has been coming to terms with how much they’re willing to share with the person filling the role they previously held. Far too often, there’s a perception that if their successor performs better than they did, it d...

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Finding Strength in Modesty

Cindy and I recently adopted two (more) rescue dogs. We’ve had dogs since we got married, all of which have been rescues for the last fifteen years. The one that has been our most heartwarming success story to date had been dealing with several health issues and we had to put him down. As tough as t...

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Embracing Your Distinct Voice

Before we dive headfirst into the importance of (and steps for) taking ownership of the irreplaceable value we can each add to the people we serve, I want you to take time to consider a specific strength you have but are likely overlooking. Since so many of us struggle with this, you may want to see...

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A Call to Lead with Influence

Every title and position has its limitations; for our investments into relationships to have a lasting impact, the influence we earn will always trump any authority we hold. That influence, especially when balanced with a healthy dose of humble confidence, can produce a ripple effect that reaches fa...

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Balancing Confidence with Influence

In wrapping our look at the strength of humility, I stress the need for a confidence-humility balance in order to earn trust and buy-in that rarely comes through the sheer force of authority. With that being tied predominantly to the importance of developing and maintaining humility when our title t...

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Overcoming Resistance with Influence

I realize I’ve shared it several times already, but I don’t believe it’s possible to overstate John Maxwell’s comment that “Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.” As I detailed how having the humility to ask our son to change his behavior (while still explaining the potential results ...

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The Ripple Effect of Influence

As we looked at both fostering a mentorship culture and how humility serves as a counter to firm positional authority, I was very intentional each time in using the term “leadership legacy.” John Maxwell opens the final chapter in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, “The Law of Legacy,” by saying...

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Influence Across Hierarchies

In detailing the importance of mentoring for influence rather than control, I used the term hierarchy a few times. Although I barely graduated high school, I’ve read a ton of books written by people far smarter than me. Comprehending and digesting many of those required me to research the meaning of...

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Mentor to Influence, Never Control

As we looked at how pursuing mentorship could help maximize the return on investment in relationships and how paying that forward by developing others serves as our own path to leadership, I stressed how powerful being mentored is and the true difference we can make by identifying those around us th...

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