For those of us who are fast-paced and task-oriented, those high D’s if you’re familiar with the DISC Model of Human Behavior, slowing down long enough to truly reflect on an adversity is tough enough. Sitting still to search for every possible seed to equal or greater benefit hidden within it can b...
Seeds from each adversity grow strongest when we keep sowing after the dramatic chapter ends. Leadership attributes do not mature in a single crisis; they compound when we refuse to treat the latest setback as the last word. As we hone each attribute through individual, and often smaller adversities...
I need to be completely transparent here: sharing each individual adversity through this process of challenging you to make the best of your bad situations has been one of the most awkward things I’ve ever done. I’ve said repeatedly that I know mine pale in comparison to what I’ve seen so many othe...
In late 2015 or early 2016, just weeks after accepting a new role as a Safety and Human Resources manager for a mid-sized construction company, I was invited to lunch by one of the vendors who provided a specific service to that organization. He picked me and the CFO up at our office and drove us a ...
For years in our Emerging Leader Development course, Cindy has emphasized that one of the toughest things about defining moments isn’t just the adversity involved but the fact that we don’t get to choose when we have to deal with them. With more road now behind me than I have left in front of me, I ...
Each adversity Cindy and I worked through from early 2020 through late 2021, professionally and personally, brought its own degree of strain. And so did every single one that followed. Looking back on those, the common thread the hardest ones shared was the relationship we had with the people involv...
After eighteen months with very limited opportunities to earn a living and far too many challenges we’d have been happy to do without, a few quiet years of wide-open work to re-establish the momentum we had lost and rebuild our bank accounts would have been wonderful. Before I share what actually ha...
As I wrapped up our look at the seeds we can pull from the adversities involved with defending the vulnerable, I shared that Granny was nearly 97 years old when she passed away in August 2020. There’s always a degree of pain that comes with loss, but I was as grateful as anything; for the long life ...
I realize there will be folks who read what I’ve shared here detailing the conflicts we experienced while doing all we could to advocate for Granny during the most vulnerable time of her nearly 97 years as throwing stones at a particular organization. While some of this may have been soft lobs in th...
Granny passed away on August 3, 2020; not from Covid or from a lack of care. Had it not been for the family who cared for her in their home, I’m not sure either of those could have been said. What I am sure of is that we would not have had the time with her through the final weeks of her life that w...
Earlier, I shared what John Maxwell taught me (and a group of a few hundred others) in 2015 about how one door can lead to another - and then another. The relationships we build, especially when we’re willing to invest the necessary time and energy into nurturing them, do the same. And influence fol...
More than any other adversity I can point to, dealing with the facility being paid to care for Granny through the first six months of 2020 - and being barred from even visiting her through most of that - gave me perspective for sympathy. In complete transparency, I’m developing some of that perspect...
