Leading Thoughts Archive

Stephen’s weekly Leading Thoughts newsletters were written from 2015-2022. In the over 300 posts archived here, Stephen shares the “soft skills” of being a good leader in your business, community, and family.

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Develop Your Intuition

There are many aspects of great leadership that can be taught and just as many that have to come intuitively, as though from a secret sense. Let me describe one of these latter ones here. We have many tools today for analyzing personality, discerning what motivates people, and unearthing what kind of leader they might be. Use whatever works for you. I mean that sincerely. Yet you must—hear me, you must—develop your own sense about people—what they do well and what they cannot do well. This discernment should be wrapped in compassion and yet fueled by the sharpest of insight.[read more]

July 14th, 2021|

Family Strategies for the Busy Leader

It is Fourth of July weekend as I write this Leading Thoughts. I hope you had a marvelous time. I loved seeing people out in the world celebrating, families joyously reveling in new freedoms and old. It was the family part that was bittersweet for me. An old friend of mine was just told her husband is filing for divorce. The story is one I’ve heard many times. She was rising in her field and didn’t compensate for the travel and separations well. He had a thriving online business he could run from home. He loved it and was even[read more]

July 7th, 2021|

Building a Culture of Speaking Excellence

Here is a big, broad idea for you. An explanation first, though. I’m committed to making sure that you take improving your speaking ability seriously. This will be an essential skill for success in the years to come, as it is now, and it is certainly why Warren Buffet recently said improving your speaking could increase your value by 50%. I’m not serving you well if I don’t keep this need before your eyes. Let me save you some time. Here is the main way you engineer this improvement: create a culture of speaking excellence in your firm and around[read more]

June 30th, 2021|

Looking Reality in the Face

I have often been asked what I think my best trait as a leader is. My answer sometimes surprises people. I have the ability to look reality in the face, no matter how daunting that reality is, no matter how much bad news that reality may hold. Some of this ability is a matter of personality traits, but most of it is the example of a man I admire: Admiral Jim Stockdale. Admiral Stockdale was the highest-ranking US military officer to be captured and held in the “Hanoi Hilton” during the Vietnam War. He was tortured viciously more than twenty[read more]

June 24th, 2021|

Human Resources for the Soul

I want to continue to riff on a theme I introduced in my last Leading Thoughts. It’s the theme of how our work environments inspire us—or not! I was reading some reflections by the eminent broadcaster of decades ago, David Brinkley. He was one of the Anderson Coopers or Wolf Blitzers of his day, only bigger. In recalling the great early days of radio, he taught me something I did not know. At NBC in those days, announcers on shows that aired after 6:00 p.m. had to wear tuxedos. Remember, this was radio. The audience could not see these announcers.[read more]

June 16th, 2021|

Level Up Your Speech

My goal in these Leading Thoughts is to help you be a better leader, and in our age being a better leader is a lot about communication. I’ve apologized to you before for not emphasizing this enough here, since my firm does speaker training and we know the value of it. I particularly felt convicted about not stressing speaking skills when I heard Warren Buffet say that a person could double their value by learning to speak better. He once took a Dale Carnegie speaking course and it changed his life. Learning to become a skilled speaker can change your[read more]

June 9th, 2021|

Workspaces that Inspire

We are just coming to the end of a global social experiment in working from home. For some, like me, it was nothing new. I’ve worked from a home office for decades. For others, it was liberation. For many, if the surveys are any guide, it was something they hope never to return to. They need people. They need live connections. They are better when they are together in person with others. Our society will be digesting these trends and objections for years. For now, I want to emphasize one element of working from home that was a success and[read more]

June 2nd, 2021|

Goal Setting – One of the Great Arts of Leadership

If I walk up to anyone in your firm tomorrow, I should be able to ask about two things and get clear answers. First, what is the vision of the firm. Second, what are your current goals. Let’s talk about the goals. The inexperienced often think of goal setting as a way for a leader to pressure their team. It is as though the leader is saying, “Here is your quota. Reach it or leave.” Well, that isn’t what great leaders call setting goals. The setting of a goal is one of the great arts of leadership. It is the[read more]

May 26th, 2021|

The Power of Story

You are likely at a critical time in your leadership journey. We are emerging from the devastations of a pandemic. The organization you lead needs to be supercharged, perhaps resurrected, certainly inspired and rallied, and maybe even rebranded. You likely need a fresh way of understanding yourself and your firm in order to thrive in the days that are coming. I want to recommend using a tool you already have in your toolbox: story. Much of the problem in our fast-paced leadership lives is that we see reality and we present reality in bits and pieces. We offer data, not[read more]

May 19th, 2021|

How Much Dissent is Allowed?

You’ve heard me say repeatedly in these Leading Thoughts that leading an organization is much about creating a culture within that organization. Part of your decision about the nature of that culture is determining the level of dissent you are willing to allow. We are watching today a debate in the Republican party in the United States about how much dissent they will allow in their ranks. It is really a question about how big their tent is going to be. Can a party leader keep their position and have voted to impeach Donald Trump? Can a rising party member[read more]

May 12th, 2021|
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