In the fifth lesson of our Emerging Leader Development course, Cindy and I share how important it is for anyone with leadership responsibility to build time into their routine to reflect on the progress they are making. All too often, those of us who take on the role of a leader get consumed with th...

Between the time we returned from our honeymoon in late April of 2000 to when we were both working exclusively in Dove Development & Consulting, we had done a lot to hone our clear purpose - albeit still quite what we’re working to achieve today. But even the ever-evolving purpose we were focused on...

Getting a taste for what it was like to work toward a clear purpose offered a feeling I hadn’t really experienced elsewhere in my work life. Seeing the direct impact I could have on someone else’s career, and how that impacted their entire life, by sharing things I had learned that helped me and Cin...

After nearly two decades with the same company, and most of that in one facility, I knew just about everyone I worked with daily on a first name basis. I also knew many of their family members and a fair amount about what the majority of them enjoyed doing during the little bit of time they had off....

While accepting similar positions with different companies wasn’t necessarily moving me toward a fulfilling purpose, working just nine or ten hours daily in those companies provided something I hadn’t experienced in years: time to pursue the things we had gotten that glimpse of purpose and fulfil...

Elevating your team is about lifting them up through your leadership. A snapshot of what lifting others through leadership should look like, is below and can be found in the book, 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork.

With good leadership, everything improves.  Leaders are lifters.  They lift their te...

In August 2015, I sat in a room with John Maxwell for what was the closest I had been to him in the decade and a half that I had been studying his work. If I’m being honest, I was completely overwhelmed. This session was just prior to the event where I would complete my initial certification to use ...

Assuming we’ve fulfilled the part of our leadership responsibility that lies in tying our organization’s mission, vision, and values to a definite purpose and we’ve invested the effort to recognize what our team members have shown us to truly drive them, we have the key pieces in place to help them ...

As we started looking at ways to provide a clear picture of the purpose each of our team members are working toward, I shared how Pat Lencioni defined “immeasurability” in The Truth About Employee Engagement. Just to be sure that’s fresh in your mind, here it is once more:

Employees need to be ab...

The Law of the Edge states that the difference between two equally talented teams is leadership. Leadership is the key to success!

Chapter 15 begins by reminding us that teams always look for an edge. Sports teams create new plays to outsmart their opponents and win games. They trade for what they ...

My primary focus in writing What’s KILLING Your Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!) was to absolutely drive home one single point to every business owner, executive, and manager it could possibly reach. That point, detailed through each separate chapter, was how much impact effective l...

Early on in this look at Leading With a Clear Purpose, I shared examples of close friends who have dedicated (and risked) their lives through careers serving others; military, fire, and law enforcement. In detailing those, I even provided some average starting wages for police officers and firefight...