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ARTICLES BY DR. ANDY NEILLIE, CSP

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The 4 Levels of Leadership Conversations

By Andy Neillie | July 23, 2024

Today we’re tackling an essential yet challenging aspect of leadership: navigating difficult conversations. In this short video blog, we’ll explore the four levels of leadership conversations, from asking clarifying questions to addressing serious problems.

Here’s a quick summary:

1. Questions: I recommend starting with open-ended questions like, “Help me understand,” or “Can you explain further?” to encourage deeper dialogue.

2. Concerns: Share your concerns transparently and invite your team to do the same.

3. Issues: Address misunderstandings and conflicts directly to turn them into growth opportunities.…

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Leader: Sometimes you need to just show up

By Andy Neillie | July 8, 2024

The start of a four-year journey
At the beginning of the Covid lock-down, my athletic wife got me started on my CrossFit journey. The gym she was going to immediately pivoted to free Zoom classes. My life of travel as a business consultant had come to a screeching halt, I finally had time to get serious again about fitness, and I followed my wife’s lead on joining these on-line classes streamed to an iPad in our backyard.

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Over Requires Under

By Andy Neillie | June 12, 2024

In my experience serving on the advisory board of a nonprofit that’s doing incredible work by combining physical fitness with spiritual growth. The journey of the nonprofit’s founder is nothing short of inspiring. One key takeaway from this episode is the importance of understanding that to effectively lead and expand your influence, you must also remain under the authority of others. This episode is packed with insights that can help shape your leadership approach and drive your personal and professional growth.

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“Leadership Excellence” is often a contradiction in terms

By Andy Neillie | May 22, 2024

Several of them dropped the balls again. In the midst of “generally managing everything,” several of our swim school General Managers let their site-specific social media postings fall off the radar in the past several weeks.

On the one hand I understand: we are heading into our busiest time of the year, and most of them are short-staffed. On the other hand, our customers live on their smartphones. If we aren’t posting regularly,

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Be Strong and Courageous: Embracing Fear and Anxiety in Leadership

By Andy Neillie | April 30, 2024

Leadership is not just about guiding others but also about handling our own fears and anxieties. In our latest leadership episode, we are exploring the timeless call to “be strong and courageous,” a mandate that has encouraged leaders for generations.

Here are three key takeaways from this inspiring session:

· Courage in Leadership: Understand that leadership involves periods of fear and anxiety. Acknowledging this can empower you to handle challenges more effectively.

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Thriving in the Shade: Lessons in Growth and Leadership from Asiatic Jasmine, 4.9.2

By Andy Neillie | April 11, 2024

Asiatic Jasmine is not native to central Texas, but it thrives here. Evergreen, hardy, heat- and drought-resistant, Asiatic Jasmine is a favorite ground cover plant for Texas…

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Dive into Leadership on the High Performance Mindset Podcast

By Andy Neillie | March 20, 2024

Fellow leader,

I recently had the pleasure of joining Dr. Cindra Kamphoff on her podcast, The High Performance Mindset…

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Bigger Broader Further

By Andy Neillie | March 7, 2024

Are you thinking Bigger? Broader? Further?

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Here we go: Success and Failure

By Andy Neillie | February 16, 2024

What do success and risk have in common?

My wife and I own several swim schools in central Texas. Last year, we provided more than 200,000 swim lessons at our five facilities. We helped a lot of kids grow stronger and more comfortable in and around the water.  It was a very successful year of providing more lessons to more children than ever.

We also had a very risky year.  We demolished and rebuilt one of our five swim school at the same time we were building a brand new school. 

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