Leaders Who Lift
Too often, leaders get consumed with today’s tasks and miss one of their greatest responsibilities: helping someone else rise.
Pause Before You React
Leaders who can pause before reacting — who resist the urge to match emotion with emotion — create space for wisdom. They calm the room, not fuel the fire.
Would You Give Up $150,000?
Reggie Wayne put playoff success over a regular season bonus – talk about selfless
Choosing Value over Volume
Choose Value over Volume. Don’t fall into the trap of being the loudest voice.
3 Leadership Lessons from Indiana Jones
Last night I found myself wondering what leadership qualities we could draw from Indiana Jones
Gratitude, Perspective, and One Very Determined Cat
Gratitude has been on my mind lately, I guess, judging by my newsletter.
This week I was thinking about it in the context of perspective, with the help of our 3-legged cat and 14-year-old dog.
Stay Grateful
Gratitude isn’t soft. It’s strong. And it may be one of the most underutilized tools we have in leadership today.
And at the end of the day, it changes how we see the world.
5 Strategies for Leading Through Change
Change is never far away. A staff member leaves. A new initiative starts. Roles evolve. Seasons shift. And it can leave us feeling off-balance.
As George Bernard Shaw wrote,
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
That perspective is a helpful reminder: change isn’t just a disruption. It’s often the doorway to growth.
Authentic Leadership
…But the reality is that growing as a leader—developing new habits, adopting best practices, building emotional intelligence—is not the same as trying to copy someone else’s personality or leadership style.
Do Not Draft: Character
…character is a quality that can be measured just like height, weight, and speed.
4 Ways to Build Resilience Through Gratitude
Life has a way of throwing challenges at us when we least expect them.
I spoke on resilience at a recent annual symposium for financial planners, and was reminded of this truth. Resilience is a topic that I wasn’t speaking on at all four years ago, and now it is requested by audiences more and more (as it was here).
A Single Point
As team members, it’s critical to the team’s performance that we excel in our given role, even if it isn’t the largest or most glamorous role.
The Menus Actually Mattered
My pulse quickens each year at this time as NFL teams report to Training Camp, remembering hot, bright days in Jacksonville and Tampa as our Jaguars and Buccaneers players arrived and we started another season full of hope.
The Power of Encouragement
As mentor leaders, we have an especially important role to play in encouraging and lifting up our teams, even when things are going well. In fact, regularly voicing appreciation for effort, progress and excellence is one of the most valuable things we can do in that role.
Sharing With the Competition
One of my favorite events every year is Larry Shyatt's basketball coaches' clinic. He started it at the University of Florida when he was on Billy Donovan's staff and has continued it every year since...even though he moved on to other jobs, and now retirement from...
Agreeing to Disagree – For Over 30 Years!
Last month I headed to Lexington, KY, for the most recent version of my ongoing fantasy baseball league's draft. Our 32nd. We've also held it in the Lexington in Massachusetts, along with San Diego, Tampa, Palm Beach, Boston, DC, Vermont, Tennessee, Utah, Arizona and...
A Growth Mindset
When I graduated from Duke University in 1991, I wasn't in a particular hurry to get back. To paraphrase Sal Maricano of ESPN, "Happiness was Durham in my rear-view mirror." I'd gone up there to play baseball and football, but ended up playing only a single season of...
You Never Fully “Arrive”
Last week I wrote about not transferring blame (via Colorado Mesa baseball). As leaders, as we — and those we lead — truly own our mistakes, it's important that we also learn from them, and then move on. Learn from the past; don't live in it. That mindset is...
Don’t Transfer Blame – Instilling Accountability in Teams
I learned a new lesson in accountability while in Orlando to keynote an international conference for the Turfgrass Producers International, thanks to two days with the Colorado Mesa Mavericks baseball team, ranked in the top 10 of Division II college baseball.Before...
Striving For Excellence, Celebrating Wins
What does it mean to strive for excellence, and does it follow that we'll always be dissatisfied? And can we still be grateful? In 1999, when I was still with the Jacksonville Jaguars, we went 14-2 but lost in the AFC Championship game to the Tennessee Titans...for...
New Year, New Process?
When I was in school at Harvard, I took a class from the late, brilliant Stephen Jay Gould, a paleontologist and big baseball fan (the latter is what helped me understand any of his examples). He spoke and wrote often of our preoccupation with otherwise meaningless...
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