Nothing of consequence is ever accomplished without some form of leadership. Leaders are the change agents of society. They architect the future by challenging the status quo and striving to make things better. They lean into big problems and seize large opportunities. They create opportunities for others to find meaning through doing good work. I have been fortunate to work closely with hundreds of leaders through the years and this category is inspired by this experience.
Thank You, Mikel: A Leadership Lesson Acknowledged by a Lifelong Arsenal Fan I have been an Arsenal fan since 1971. I was a boy living in England at the time, and I will…
The Growth Trap There is a dangerous assumption many business owners make when things start moving in the right direction. They see revenue increasing, backlog growing, new opportunities appearing, the team staying busy,…
Don’t Fear AI Why Artificial Intelligence May Be the Greatest Leadership Opportunity of Our Lifetime Over the last year, I have watched people react to artificial intelligence in two dramatically different ways. One…
When Fatigue Catches Up: A Hard Truth About Leadership and Life Fatigue doesn’t show up all at once. It creeps in. A late night here. A missed dinner there. One more weekend of…
Are You Growing…or Just Staying Busy? The Discipline Behind Intentional Personal Growth After 23 years as a Vistage Chair and a total of 30 years in professional services, seeing more than 1,000 speakers,…
Meetings Aren’t the Problem—Misunderstanding Leadership Is Why CEOs and Business Owners Need to Rethink Meetings and Their Role I’m always fascinated by leaders who complain about being in too many meetings. At a…
The Setting: The Hills of Galilee – The Night Before The Sermon on the Mount Evening settles over the hills of Galilee. The last light brushes the limestone cliffs of Arbel before fading…
For Leaders, Spring Is a Choice: Planting the Seeds for What Comes Next I’ve always loved the changing of the seasons. There’s something grounding about it. A quiet reminder that everything has its…
The Mirror Test: Five Hard Truths About Leadership Accountability Leadership conversations often revolve around strategy, vision, and growth plans. Those things matter. But after years of working with business owners and executives, I’ve…
Leadership Is Always on Stage Every morning when a leader walks into the workplace, something important happens—whether they realize it or not. People watch. They watch how the leader greets people. They notice…
Why CEOs Fail is an important book because it reminds leaders that failure is rarely sudden. It is often built slowly through habits, reactions, and blind spots that go unchecked. For business owners…
Mental Toughness for Women Leaders – LaRae Quy This is a book about pressure. Real pressure. The kind that shows up when you’re the only woman in the room, when expectations are higher,…
This book is a field manual. Not theory. Not fluff. It shows you how leaders use language to move people—to act, to believe, to follow. And if you lead anything—a company, team, or…
Layered Leadership by Lawrence R. Armstrong Book Excerpts INTRODUCTION Leadership, whether of a startup; Small, mid-sized, or large firm; team; church; or any organization, must work as a whole across the continuum…
There is nothing more important than understanding how reality works and how to deal with it. The state of mind you bring to the process makes all the difference. I have found it…
Myth and legend treat leadership as if it were the private reserve of a very few charismatic men and women. Nothing is further from the truth. Leadership is much more broadly distributed in…
Managing a business, or any organization, I came to see, was more practical art than applied science. Yes, there were some useful disciplines, as in any art form, but what worked best could…
Very few of us have a life curve that is only upward-sloping. The difference is that “lucky” people just do not let their periods of adversity define them in unhelpful ways. They just…
You do not have to settle for a life of quiet desperation and hope that one day things will change. The future is now, and the sooner you start living the life you…
I believe that business and nonprofit leaders need to think differently about what constitutes success. Besides the quality of their people, what differentiates most high-performing companies is their vision, focus, and discipline. Culturally,…
The leadership journey requires you to cogitate constantly on the role you and others should be playing. As you achieve some level of success, your business may challenge your capabilities to lead it.…
Surrounding yourself with great people. Learning to delegate early on - not trying to do everything yourself. Making sure you've got the kind of people who are praising the team around them, not…
Please click on this link for the Leadership – Essential Writings By Our Greatest Thinkers Book Summary STUDYING THE SYSTEM “Our little systems have their day.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson In Organizational…
Please click on this link for the Leadership in War Book Summary Chapter 1: Napoleon Bonaparte “Napoleon recognized that the best way to inspire his people was through two means: imbuing people…
Chapter 1: The ONE Thing “What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?” “Where I’d had huge success, I had…
Introduction: Why communication matters on the shop floor (and in the boardroom) Most teams don’t stall out because of skill gaps; they stall because people feel unseen, uncertain, or uninspired. When communication frays,…
Central Thesis Leadership is layered, not linear. Enduring organizations align several layers—self‑leadership, team development, clear strategy, disciplined execution, market focus, innovation, culture, and succession—so each layer reinforces the others. The leader’s ongoing task…
Introduction In the pursuit of organizational excellence, aligning the hearts and minds of employees is crucial. Jon R. Katzenbach’s “Peak Performance: Aligning the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees” provides a comprehensive guide…
Achieving lasting success isn’t just about working harder—it’s about working smarter and understanding what truly drives you. In Managing Oneself, legendary management thinker Peter Drucker provides a powerful guide to self-awareness, helping professionals…
By embracing the principles outlined in these sections, leaders can inspire their teams, drive sustainable success, and create a lasting positive impact within their organizations. The path to success involves not just strategic…
This collection of essays and excerpts provides a diverse perspective on what it means to lead, drawing on the wisdom of influential figures from various fields.
