A Foundation That’s Held Firm

Having worked through what felt like a fairly comprehensive list of ways ineffective leadership and poor communication kill profitability in far too many businesses over the last several months, let’s change gears a bit and revisit an idea I introduced in this series in early 2020 - one I believe matters just as much today as it did then… Before we jump into that though, I’d like to share something with you here that we’ll be announcing formally at our 2023 LIVE2LEAD:Harrisonburg event soon: the ideas and action steps I mapped out as we worked through What’s Killing Your Profitability is in the process of being published in hardback, paperback, and ebook formats! Our goal is to have physical copies in hand by late January 2024. The key part that we’ll be announcing in more detail at our Nov 3 event is the opportunity to be part of our Book Launch Team. We don’t have all the details on that process finalized yet but we’ll be covering it all on a call on Friday, December 8. If you’d like to get access to that call and see whether or not you’d be willing to be part of that launch process with us, click here to fill out the form (you’re the first to even know about this) and we’ll be sure you have access. There’s no commitment at this point but we've got something really special planned for everyone who’s willing to help!

So what’s this idea from early 2020 that’s just as critical now? If you have access to our Leading At The Next Level program, I’ll challenge you to search for the lesson called Leadership of Our Founders: George Washington where I highlighted several of the leadership characteristics that led to Washington not only heading up the Continental Army but also to him serving as the first President of what I believe is still the greatest nation on the planet! My intent in that lesson was to contrast those leadership qualities to what we see from far too many of our public figures - in poliTICKS, sports, and just about every other aspect of society - and to challenge anyone working through that lesson to take a few pages from George’s playbook and implement them in their own respective spheres of influence. Since writing about it here and putting all that together for that full lesson, I’ve been able to share segments of that with all kinds of groups to emphasize the importance of effective leadership and call attention to some of our amazing history.

All that said, I’ve never been under the illusion that Washington was perfect. What he did though, as well as any leader I’ve ever read about, was surround himself with other effective leaders; leaders who often opposed some of his views but leaders who also brought complementary strengths to the table. With that in mind, we’ll be taking a trip back in time through these next several messages to study what some of our other Founding Fathers did to help create and lead a new nation. Two we’ll be digging into followed in Washington’s footsteps as president and have their fingerprints all over nearby (Virginia) universities. First though, we’ll be looking at the one who first announced our true form of government - something I think should be talked about far more frequently than it is! Stay tuned…