I love the month of February because on Valentine’s Day, we officially celebrate love. A few years ago, my colleague Michele Jansen sent me a wonderful thing. A group of professional people posed the question “What does love mean?” to a group of children. The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone would […]
Servant Leadership in the Midst of Tragedy
Several members from our church, including a friend of mine, recently traveled to the Holy Land. Before they left, my friend received well wishes from his friend, a rabbi at Chabad of Poway synagogue. “He gave us special blessings for a safe journey. Many people worried about our safety while we were in Israel and […]
Creating Leadership Ripples
For good or bad, our behavior as leaders ripples throughout an organization. Examples of bad leadership behavior negatively affecting organizations are all too easy to cite. In the early 2000s, the criminal behavior of Enron executives caused thousands of employees to lose their jobs and led to the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, one of the […]
Be an Agile Leader
In business today, there’s a growing trend toward agile leadership: a focus on fast decision making, short-term goals, and the empowerment of individuals. What began as a leadership approach confined to IT departments—business units that must respond quickly to rapidly changing technology—has become a way of life for leaders generally. Today, it’s not just IT […]
The Unforgettable Herb Kelleher
Last Thursday, we lost probably the finest corporate leader I have known in my leadership development career: Herb Kelleher, cofounder and longtime CEO and president of Southwest Airlines. Not only was Herb the visionary who created the model for a low-fare, customer-first airline, he believed every executive is only as good as his or her people. […]
What’s Your Leadership Point of View?
Margie and I recently spent a wonderful weekend teaching our “Determining Your Leadership Point of View” class at the University of San Diego. It’s part of the Master of Science in Executive Leadership (MSEL) degree program offered by USD in partnership with our company. I often start off training sessions with managers by asking: “How […]
Now More Than Ever: A Leadership Vision for America
Several years ago, I was struck by how many people were expressing disappointment with what was going on in Washington. No matter which side of the political fence they were on, people agreed that special interests and partisan gridlock were hurting our nation’s ability to govern itself. It occurred to me that four leadership secrets I’d […]
Vulnerability in Leadership: A Good Thing or a Bad Thing?
Every day, one of my friends sends me a quote from a little book called Live and Learn and Pass It On, edited by H. Jackson Brown. Here is one I particularly enjoy: “I’ve learned that everything I truly value has been gained by vulnerability on my part. It is the secret to life.” (Anonymous, […]
3 Actions Every Leader Can Take to Serve Their People
Over the years, I’ve written a lot about servant leadership. I was recently reviewing Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert’s book, The Serving Leader (Berrett-Koehler, 2003 and 2016) when I realized how much I like the term serving leader—it makes the point that leadership is about doing something, it’s not just a philosophy. When you are […]
Let’s Clear Up Some Misunderstandings about Servant Leadership
When people hear the phrase servant leadership, they are often confused. Their assumption is that it means managers should be working for their employees, who in turn would decide what to do, when to do it, where to do it, and how to do it. If that’s what servant leadership is all about, it doesn’t […]
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