I got a call from one of our family’s medical providers this week. I hadn’t paid their bill, and they were assessing us a late charge and threatening to withhold services… I felt irresponsible, careless, foolish, and sloppy when I listened to that message. I could hear myself in my head, “You idiot. You know…
I’ve been thinking and reading about leadership lately. Specifically, I’m trying to more clearly articulate what I mean when I say, “Better humans make better leaders.” What does “better” mean in that sentence? Mature? Enlightened? Capable? These words have the same problem. What do they mean? How do you measure them? So, I’ve started to…
“I tried having a bad day once. I didn’t like it, so I decided not to do it again! ~ My Therapist Imagine you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, your toast fell on the floor (butter side down), the traffic was terrible, the client was a no-show for your meeting, and…
During a recent coaching conversation, I saw more clearly than ever before what needed to change in my life. My behavior, a way of thinking and acting, was holding me back professionally and creating friction in the relationships with those I care for most. My response was to want to change it immediately. But, as…
If you’ve led your agency for any length of time, you’ve experienced some ups and downs. For example, here’s an email I got from an agency owner this week: I thought the deal would catapult us into a new level of stability. I had verbal commitments and contracts out. In the meantime, we were working…
Contented: satisfaction with one’s possessions, status, or situation. Merriam-Webster Part of being grounded is knowing that I have what I need at this moment, and when challenges or opportunities arise, I can meet them with confidence. Another word for that is contentment. When I live from a place of contentment, it’s harder for people to…
So, I’ve never been very good at journaling. I was diligent with the 5-minute Journal process for a time, which was helpful. But I’ve had a hard time being consistent. And I know there are good reasons to keep a journal. I value reflection, and when I do it, journaling gives me perspective. It helps…
If you want to be influential and lead others, there is one thing you can do that will have an outsized impact on your leadership. Get a good night’s sleep. Before you sign up for an expensive leadership development program or read another book about leadership, pay attention to the basics. Things like sleep, nutrition,…
In human affairs, the distance between the leaders and the average is a constant. If leadership performance is high, the average will go up. The effective executive knows that it is easier to raise one leader’s performance than to raise the performance of a whole mass. ~ Peter Drucker in The Effective Executive Leaders I…
Founders of creative service firms and other agencies have built a platform that’s created leverage for them. They have a team. They’re leading an organization from a positional sense. However, the team doesn’t always do what they expect, and sometimes team members act in puzzling ways that contradict the direction they have set. To gain…