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Leadership lessons sometimes come from the most unlikely places.  Here’s one I learned from the local watch repair shop in the mall.  First, some background.

I used to travel to Asia quite a bit for work.  On one of my first trips to Hong Kong, a colleague introduced me to the Lady’s Market.  This market is a barter market filled with literally hundreds of kiosks selling thousands of high-quality and knock-off items. 

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A leadership lesson from the Grand Canyon: When we lived in Phoenix, my wife and I hiked the Grand Canyon annually. While most tourists visit the South Rim – more than 5 million annually – less than 10% of that number visit the North Rim, and far fewer chose to hike from rim-to-rim. Therefore, hiking down from the South Rim, overnighting at Phantom Ranch at the very bottom of the Canyon, then hiking up the Kaibab Trail to the North Rim gives you a much less-traveled and pristine experience.

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Ned Lud.  Not a name most of us are familiar with.  But his name – and his response to circumstances around him – created a movement.  And a term.  The Leader as Chief Luddite is my recognition that Ned Lud may still have some things to teach us as leaders.

A brief history lesson

In the late 1700s, as the Industrial Revolution increasingly automated jobs in factories and warehouses, a violent movement of laborers intent on “destroying the new machines to save their jobs”

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Leadership and Hard Conversations

We fired one of our senior leaders this week.  It wasn’t an abrupt thing.  It wasn’t a capricious thing.  I will admit it was a difficult thing.  But most importantly, at the end of the day, it was the right thing.  And it came after a series of hard conversations.

Leader: hard conversations are not bad conversations, they are just hard conversations

Leader, how do you do with hard conversations?  

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What in the world does “Leadership 101: WLAO, TLAC” mean?
Eight words: Work Like An Owner, Think Like A Customer.

Leadership 101: I’m convinced if every leader could instill this type of thinking in themselves and in the teams they lead, it could totally transform the organizations they lead and the missions they serve.

Leadership 101: First, Work Like An Owner

Marcia Lindsey is one of our managers.  She’s been in charge of our Dallas-area facility since it opened.  

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“He who knows others is wise.  He who knows himself is enlightened.” — Lao Tzu

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” — Carl Rogers

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Leadership is about three things: people, difficult things and the future.  Let’s talk about the third element, leadership and the future.  In particular, let’s look at leadership and opportunity costs for the future.

An Unexpected Opportunity

Last year, we were presented with an opportunity to expand.  There was an ambitious landlord who loved our concept and offered us “a deal we couldn’t resist.” The location was right, the demographics were right,

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Luther Bruce wasn’t necessarily a skeptic.  But he asked hard questions that no one really wanted to hear. So he sometimes came across as one. And early in my career, I learned that “The Leader as Chief Skeptic” isn’t a bad thing.

My first corporate position was as the Director of Development for a private school – I was in charge of fundraising for a school where I had taught and coached for a number of years.  

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Does your organization have a set of core values? Are they core values, or are they simply an exercise some consultant took you and your leadership team through several years ago. I’m convinced there is a strong corollary between effective leadership and core values.

First of all, a declaration:

The core values of an organization are the promises it makes to its employees, customers, vendors and community.

When I recognized that core values,

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Leadership as an introvert looks different.

Let me clear the air: I’m an introvert.  I like people, but they drain me.  I’m good with names but not great.  I lead well in-the-moment, but remembering personal details about our team members when I don’t spend much time with them is hard for me.

I sometimes wish I could interact with four, maybe five people at the most, and still be considered an effective leader.  

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