If we’re going to earn the kind of buy-in that yields the 57 percent increase in discretionary effort and 20 percent improvement in individual performance detailed in the Harvard Business Review article I referenced multiple times throughout What’s Killing Your Profitability?,...

As we looked at how the power of having a clear purpose can help leaders navigate some of the toughests scenarios they’ll face, I suggested that they’ll also need to provide at least as much specificity for the team members they lead and shared how my son accepted a position for five...

If we’re going to lead with a clear purpose, providing the oh-so-necessary clarity for the team members who are counting on us, having a firm grasp on a purpose of our own that truly is rewarding can be the difference maker when we need to push through the tough times - and there will most...

If any of us really hope to tap into the power of having a clear purpose while juggling all the responsibilities that come with leading a team of any size, we will need to be sure we’re getting the most possible out of every ounce of time we have. Let me be clear though, that’s no...

Any time I’m talking with a business owner, an executive, or really anyone with responsibility for attracting and retaining great team members, I share a critical lesson I learned early on during my time working in behavior based safety: people rarely shy away from tasks due difficulty,...

Life and leadership are filled with good and bad.  Some of the good and bad will find us.  But if we have a positive life stance whether it’s the good or the bad finding us, we will keep the best perspective possible in any situation. 

In applying this to leadership, we need...

Just for the sake of setting a foundation, let’s assume we - as the leader of our team - have an incredibly clear purpose that gets us out of bed each morning, ready to charge hell with a water pistol! Let’s also assume that having that kind of clarity personally allows us to be able...

If someone as driven as the friend I mentioned before can lose some motivation or feel burnout when they don’t feel like they’re making a meaningful impact, I’m convinced anyone with any level of leadership responsibility will too - sooner or later! And if business owners and...

If you really think about the challenge my friend shared with me in running one of his businesses, I’m betting you can relate! To that end, I think it’s safe to assume we’ve all felt that way at some point regardless of the role we’re in. In chapter eight of What’s...

During a phone call with a lifelong friend, I heard one of the most unique combinations of passion and despair that I can remember. He shared how he felt like he was just going through the motions in one aspect of his professional life, grinding his teeth through each project he completed, but...

How we view things determines how we do things.

During my time working in Hospice, I gained a deep perspective that every day we get to do the things we do each day.  At the time, I did not want to work.  I wanted to be home with my children.  Both our son and daughter were...

If we think back to how we started this look at Leadership Misunderstood, the biggest myths we’ve taken aim at here were few but extremely common:

• People automatically follow a business owner, executive, manager (or whatever other title you want to insert here) because their paycheck...