Reading Time: 6 minutesCulture takes the shape of the people leading it. Here’s how to see yours. Stand in front of a light and you cast a shadow. There isn’t a conscious choice involved. It happens because something solid stands between the light and the floor. Leaders work the same way. Whatever we’re made of falls across
7 Shadows of Leadership Read More »
Reading Time: 8 minutesDiscernment: The Keystone Virtue Between a Decision and Its Delivery. Successful leaders tend to share a reflex. We have a bias for action, and most days it serves us well. It’s part of how we rose. Then a big decision lands on the table, and that reflex takes the wheel. Ready, fire, aim. Act
The Little Thing Called Implementation Read More »
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe skeptic’s case for virtue-driven leadership. If I lost you at “virtues,” I get it. Say that word in a leadership meeting and watch the room. Somebody checks their texts on their phone. Another person rolls their eyes. Someone else decides this is the part of the agenda they can scan their email.
If I Lost You at Virtues Read More »
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhat a 1925 lightbulb cartel and a 125-year-old bulb reveal about the light you leave behind Two days before Christmas in 1924, while the rest of Geneva strung up holiday lights, a group of executives met in that same city and decided how long your lightbulbs would last. Nobody taught me this in school, and
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhat a stubborn horse taught me about leading people A horse knows what you’re feeling before you know it yourself. Pull the reins too tight and the animal fights you. Let them hang slack and the animal decides where you’re both going. Somewhere between those two is the grip that works, and finding it is
Reading Time: 5 minutesYou’re setting the tone whether you mean to or not. Every leader leaves a wake. Few of us ever turn around to look at it. Jason Kaplan’s LinkedIn post, the Ripple Effect of Leadership, crossed my feed and lingered. He described leadership the way you’d describe a stone dropped in water. Every decision, every word,
The Monday the Room Went Quiet Read More »
Reading Time: 7 minutesThe Exercise That Started It More than twenty years ago, I was drifting. On the surface, everything looked fine. Career moving forward, hitting my targets, earning praise for my work. Inside, I felt a growing frustration. Work kept pulling me in directions that didn’t feel right, and I couldn’t figure out why. Vicki Flier
When “Values” Became V-AL-UES Read More »
Reading Time: 7 minutesSome messages arrive fully formed. Mine never do. It started as a line I wrote in service of someone else’s purpose. I was supporting employee and business communications at Cox Enterprises, working on content related to its purpose statement at the time: Empower People Today to Build a Better Future for the Next Generation. Somewhere
Build the Lighthouse. Beam the Message. Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutesAs leaders, we set the emotional tone for our teams. Most of us never notice we’re doing it. A reel in my social media feed asked a question that got me thinking. Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? A thermometer reads the temperature. The thermostat changes it. The Marine Officer’s Point Landed
Be the Thermostat, Not the Thermometer Read More »
