I heard John Maxwell say, “Anyone can find a problem, but it takes a leader to find a solution,” (or something along those lines) for the first time nearly twenty years ago. In fact, I remember him sharing a story about the time he started requiring anyone on his team bringing him a problem to prese...
Over the last twenty years, I’ve had access to better mentors than I probably deserved. I’d like to think I’ve always worked as hard as I possibly could to earn that access but some of the folks who have sown into my life and career were nothing short of proof that God’s hand does indeed move in eac...
I remember a Friday evening phone call a few years back with a friend who was serving as CEO for a locally owned company that was experiencing almost unbelievable growth. He had been very tuned into the topline and bottomline revenue the entire time I knew him. I had also seen firsthand how effectiv...
Last time, I shared an example that I hoped would help make the case for the clear difference between managing and leading an organization. One is just as important as the other and neither can be overlooked, but we cannot mistakenly consider those two very different actions to be one in the same! T...
The entire time I was in manufacturing, nearly twenty years, the facility I worked in held a meeting each Tuesday afternoon that was often referred to as The Leadership Team Meeting. The plant manager led this meeting and each of the department managers participated, reviewing the metrics they were ...
Several years ago, Cindy and I led a session covering The DISC Model of Human Behavior for a local client where a friend of mine was one of the participants. He and I had served on a board together prior to that so I had a solid understanding of his day to day responsibilities and I knew that he was...
Having looked at some things we can consider adding to our systems when we have either of the two more Outgoing styles, a more DRIVEN approach or a more INSPIRING blend, let’s change our pace a bit and focus on what we need to considering building into our systems if we’re have the primary behaviora...
 Last time, we looked at the Systems that Get Results most of us DRIVEN folks need in order to have a solid chance at sticking with them long term. Since they only represent about 10% of the world, let’s press on by looking at what we should consider building into our systems for productivity if we ...
We started down this path by looking at How to Be More Productive - at Work and at Home then we worked through some Personal Productivity Tools that Support Great Systems. As I mentioned before though, we’ll each need to develop our own unique approach if we want to create systems in our lives that ...
A new coaching client asked me (Cindy) recently what my favorite book on leadership was. Without hesitation I shared the single most impactful book for me other than the Bible is, 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. As leaders, we must lead ourselves well before we have any hope of leading others well. ...
In the second lesson of our Emerging Leader Development course, Cindy and I emphasize that building strong connections with the people we’re responsible for leading requires energy. We go on to stress that putting energy into connecting with our teams requires each of us to make sure we’re intention...
Several years ago, Cindy and I were leading a group through a fairly in depth study of John Maxwell’s Everyone Communicates, Few Connect when one of the folks in the group expressed concern about how applying the five principles and five practices outlined in the book could be viewed as manipulative...
