Business Leaders are Trusted Voices
For many years I’ve been telling you in Leading Thoughts that business leaders are far more influential in society than they understand. Some futurists even predict that before long people’s values will be shaped by their work environment more than their places of worship. This is challenging information, I know, but it is true. Now, in an age of coronavirus, consider this. People around the world are indicating they are more likely to believe their employers about coronavirus matters than they are governments. They rely on scientists and medical experts, but they want to hear from their employers. They trust[read more]
Relief or Restoration?
I’m going to meddle in your personal life in this Leading Thoughts, and you should be forewarned. In exchange, I’ll keep it short. How’s that for a deal? I want you to ponder with me the difference between relief and restoration in your life. Relief is short term. It lifts the pain or the pressure for a while. It doesn’t last. Restoration, however, gets to the heart of the matter. It fixes the core issues from which you feel the need for relief. Restoration is the permanent solution, the final cure. It is making things right. Relief is just easing[read more]
Customer Experience: Lloyds vs Disney
I’ve had the same experience you’ve had. You arrive at the restaurant looking forward to a good meal and a respite from the day. You are seated and the waitress or waiter approaches. But they are stressed. Things aren’t going well. So, as though you are old friends, they unload on you. They tell you all that has gone wrong that day, from that rude customer to the demands of the boss to the loss of electricity that morning. Suddenly, your whole experience has changed. You aren’t settling in for a quiet, restorative meal. You have been brought inside the[read more]
Stay Close to Your Sacred Spaces
I’m wondering if you are familiar with the phrase “sacred space.” It comes to us largely from Celtic theology, which is a particular love of mine. I think there is important meaning in this phrase for all of us who lead and I want to help you apply it to your life. Sacred space simply means a physical place or location in which the sacred is experienced. God is encountered. Spiritual realities seem near. The Celts called such places “thin places.” In other words, sacred spaces were terrain that did not seem to be separated from the spiritual. They were[read more]
Victory Goes to the Well-Spoken
It wasn’t that long ago that Warren Buffett surprised the business world by saying that there was a way everyone could increase their value by 50%. Trust me, everyone leaned in. What was it? Improve your speaking ability. Mr. Buffett knew this because he was a terrible speaker earlier in his life. The mere idea of speaking before a crowd terrified him. Then he took a Dale Carnegie Course. It changed him and made him more successful. Now, he’s one of the richest and most generous men in the world. If you visit his office today, you won’t find his[read more]
Finding Your Communication “Stick”
Let me talk to you about communication and how it is the mechanism by which you set the trajectory of your firm. When most leaders achieve a certain height in their profession, they delegate communication. This is particularly true in our age of social media. A senior leader certainly shouldn’t spend vast amounts of time writing tweets and wrestling with graphics or video. So, they usually step away from all but their personal communication as soon as they can. Let me say it clearly. This is a mistake. It is vital—I say again, vital—for you to have a means of[read more]
Strong Leaders Like Eagles
There are many ways to take stock of the health of a leader. I want to tell you about a tool of analysis that I always find to be very accurate about the security and wisdom of the leaders I advise. Think about your image of a strong, healthy, secure leader. He or she is vital and vibrant, competent and courageous. Yet they also like to have people of equal strength around them. They like eagles. They know the wisdom of having people of differing gifts but equal power teamed with them. In fact, the leaders I work with will[read more]
The Damage of Sustained Sitting
We are learning from nearly every kind of health expert about the damage of sustained sitting. We are being told it is more destructive than smoking. Let me scare the heck out of you first and then talk about some solutions. Sitting too much weakens and atrophies our muscles. It can mess up our backs. It can cause us to put on the pounds. It can cause varicose veins. It increases our risk of heart disease, diabetes, blood clots, and some cancers. It can be bad for our mental health. As if all of this isn’t terrifying enough, it can[read more]
Failure to Confront
There is one untended duty, one failure to act, that I have seen cause more loss, more devastation, more embarrassment, and more weakening of teams than any other. I’m going to tell you what it is and then challenge you to fix it. That one oft-repeated failure on the part of leaders is this: failure to confront. I can best illustrate this ever-present problem by describing a situation you’ve certainly experienced before. Like you, I’ve been on many teams—sports teams or music teams or aid teams working abroad. Occasionally, someone just smells. They either don’t wear any deodorant or they[read more]
Be BEST
If you are like most people in the world, you entered 2020 with some New Year’s resolutions. And, if you are like most people in the world, those resolutions were fairly demanding. You are going to lose forty pounds or train for a marathon or make another $100,000 this year or finally remodel the house. In other words, you have set your sights on some large targets. I applaud you, but I want to suggest another—think of it as an additional—approach to growing and improving in this new year and in life as a whole. I want to suggest that[read more]