Never Let an Employee Hold Your Company Hostage
Never Let an Employee Hold Your Company Hostage One of the most common conversations I have with business owners goes something like this: “Ed, if she leaves, we’re in trouble.” Sometimes it’s a…
Team Building/Development Resources
Team building is a critical success skill for business owners and leaders. No matter how good they are, there is only so much of an impact one person can have on an organization, especially as it grows. I am confident that a group of focused, committed, and technically competent individuals will regularly outperform any gifted individual contributor. However, harnessing and effectively leveraging the skills of a group of individual contributors is hard work. If it were easy everyone could do it and organizations would function much better.
Blog Posts
Meetings Aren’t the Problem—Misunderstanding Leadership Is
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…
Leadership Lessons from the Founding Fathers and Other U.S. Presidents
The leadership strategies of the Founding Fathers and U.S. Presidents offer timeless lessons for today’s business leaders. From the visionary leadership of Thomas Jefferson and John F. Kennedy to the bold risk-taking of…
Collaboration: The Critical Key Virtue for Success in Leadership and Business
At its heart, collaboration is about building a community—whether it’s within a business, a project, or a broader organization. Individual effort alone cannot achieve the trust, accountability, and sense of ownership that collaboration…
The Leadership Wheel: A Comprehensive Guide to Effective Leadership
Throughout my journey as a leader, business coach, teacher, and mentor, I’ve come to realize that leadership isn’t a final destination—it’s a continuous process of growth and self-discovery. I’m sharing this blog to…
Unlocking Success Through Financial Transparency: A Guide for Business Leaders
The journey toward financial transparency is a transformative process that can redefine the way you do business. By fostering a culture of openness, you enhance your operational efficiency and stakeholder trust and position…
CEOs: Are You Building a Team of A Players? (And Are You One?)
he term "A player" gets thrown around a lot in leadership circles. But what does it really mean? Do these unicorns of talent surround you, or are you still searching for your first…
22 Reasons Why Leadership Team Meetings Are Ineffective (or Average at Best)
Instead of treating these important meetings with the professional respect they deserve, most individual participants view them as a means of simply fulfilling a team obligation and/or humoring the senior person in charge…
The Five Benefits of Constructive Dissent
The best leaders encourage dissent through rigorous dialogue and debate. They care less about who’s right and more about getting to the right answer. They shift some of the decision-making burden from themselves…
Leadership Thought #240 – Eight Questions Leaders Should Be Asking All the Time
As I've covered many times in previous blogs it becomes less and less and about you working harder or having all the answers and more about you diligently asking the right questions and…
Leadership Thought #475 – 3 Key Factors That Lead To Employee Success
Jimmy Johnson stated that in his experience, three things make a successful player: 1) natural ability/talent, 2) intelligence, and 3) work ethic. When all three of these factors converge, you know you've made…
Leadership Thought #469 – Beware of People Who Have Style But Lack Substance
In life, we often encounter overly charming individuals who always seem to know what to say and how to say it. I am always a bit skeptical when an individual has too much…
Leadership Thought #468 – The Biggest Mistake Leaders Make
The biggest mistake leaders make is to think it is all about them. They believe that success or failure is a direct result of their behavior rather than a team effort. Show me…
Leadership Thought #463 – You Need To Have Thick Skin To Lead Others
Leadership requires a thick skin. It certainly has its ups and downs and can test anyone’s emotional fortitude. However, this is precisely the reason why so few people can do it well. If…
A Few Thoughts on Thanksgiving – 2013
When you sit back and reflect on Thanksgiving there is much to learn from the events that led to its creation. It is quite a testament to the power of the human spirit…
Leadership Thought #432 – It’s Your Business Sandbox – Manage It Carefully
When you own your business, it is your sandbox. You get to decide who plays in it and what happens inside. Just remember that these decisions also have consequences. As an advisor to…
Leadership Thought #385 – The Importance of Succession Planning
Far too many organizations depend on far too few people to succeed. I often ask my clients, "What happens to your business if something happens to you?" The answer is usually less than…
Leadership Thought #375 – Change Management Lessons From The Movie Moneyball
I recommend that anyone in a leadership position watch this movie and identify the commonalities with their experiences. Change management is a critical leadership skill. At its best, it feels like an accurate reflection…
Leadership Thought #351 – Surround Yourself with Good People
People will make or break your business. The best leaders intuitively understand this reality and surround themselves with the best talent possible. You can only ever accomplish so much alone. Achieving anything significant…
Leadership Thought #317 – You Have To Learn To Hit Curve Balls Or Find Someone Who Can
If you want to grow your company to the next level, your thinking and actions must be dynamic and proactive. You need to outthink the competition, anticipate market changes, build more sophisticated delivery…
Leadership Thought #314 – It’s Not Just About You
When you lead others, it's also about them, not just about you. Many leaders struggle with this idea, especially those with big egos. The truth is that without followers, a leader isn't needed.…
Leadership Thought #307 – Never Become Too Important To Your Business
Your business should be able to run reasonably well without you. I've met (and coached) many business owners through the years who admit that if something happened to them, the company would have…
Leadership Thought #300 – Never Get To the Point Where You Think You Know It All
I often meet business owners and leaders who think they have it all figured out. Whenever this happens, a red flag goes up for me right away. The best leaders I know are…
Leadership Thought #299 – Leveraging Other People
When in doubt ask good questions and leverage the knowledge and experience of other people. There are few things less attractive about a leader than someone who acts like they know the answer…
Leadership Thought #285 – Compromise Doesn’t Mean Weakness
All organizations are held together by their center, not by their polar opposites. There is a time for debate, and there is a time for compromise. There is a time to be cautious,…
Leadership Thought #276 – Never Argue For The Sake Of Arguing
We have all met people who seem to argue for the sake of arguing. Some people seem to need to find flaws in everything or disagree just to be disagreeable. It is one…
Leadership Thought #246 – Winning The Games You Should Win
High-performing businesses often resemble their sports counterparts. Their concentration and effort are predictable. Nothing is taken for granted. People are aware of their expectations and consistently meet them. Crises are infrequent. Business units…
Leadership Thought #227 – Connecting With Your Audience Is Not Optional
In my experience, the best leaders become comfortable in a variety of work and social settings. They can adjust their style to meet the needs of their audience or conform to the group…
Leadership Thought #197 – You Have To Know Your People
Unless you are a solo practitioner, you need to achieve success with and through other people. There is no magic formula for this; just know that people are individuals, and it's best to…
Daily Leadership Thought #186 – Conflict Can Be Good, Even Essential
In organizations as in democracies the inability to foster constructive conflict is a troubling development. To grow and get better, there needs to be disagreement about how to best do things and find…
Recommended Reading
Extreme Ownership
Book introduction Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win is a leadership book that centers on one powerful idea: you are responsible for everything in your world. Jocko Willink and Leif…
The Four Disciplines of Execution
Most teams drown in priorities, meetings, and metrics that don’t change outcomes. 4DX shows you how to narrow your aim, track the signals that actually predict success, make progress visible, and build a…
Getting Along: How To Work With Anyone (Even Difficult People)
Getting Along If you lead people, you lead through friction—clashing styles, mixed agendas, and the pressure to hit goals without drama. You don’t have time to play therapist, and you can’t afford to…
Getting To “Yes And” – The Art of Business Improv
Getting to Yes, And How improv builds better teams, faster decisions, and real momentum.Inspired by Bob Kulhan’s book Getting to “Yes And”: The Art of Business Improv (Stanford Business Books, 2017). Most teams…
HBR Guide to Leading Teams (HBR Guide Series)
Most team problems aren’t technical—they’re people problems: unclear goals, fuzzy roles, slow decisions, and accountability that slips. This guide gives you the basics you actually need: how to form the team, set the…
Great Teams: 16 Things High Performing Organizations Do Differently
Don Yaeger’s Great Teams looks at high-performing teams across sports, business, and organizations—and pulls out something useful: Great teams are built on habits, not talent alone.
Founding Fathers on Leadership
The Founding Fathers were not aligned by default. Different backgrounds. Different interests. Different visions for the country. And yet, they had to build something together. That’s leadership.
The Four Obsessions of An Extraordinary Executive
The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive This is a short book that doesn’t try to impress you with theory. It tries to correct behavior. And it does it by forcing a simple…
The Five Dysfunctions of A Team
Patrick Lencioni doesn’t hide behind theory. He shows you what actually breaks teams—and more importantly, what leaders allow to break them. This is not about strategy. It’s about behavior. And behavior is where…
Death By Meeting
Patrick Lencioni makes a simple but uncomfortable claim: meetings aren’t boring by accident—they’re boring by design. And worse, that boredom is costing you clarity, alignment, and results. This book is a sharp correction.…
Creating We
“WE-thinking” changes the game. It asks leaders to build conditions where people feel safe enough to contribute, challenge, listen, and create together. The leader’s job is not to win every conversation. The leader’s…
The Culture Code
Daniel Coyle’s core idea is simple: great cultures are not accidents. They are built through small, consistent behaviors that signal safety, trust, and shared purpose. Miss those signals, and performance quietly erodes.
Reading Excerpts
High Performance: Lessons From The Best on Becoming Your Best
In your high-performance journey, you'll need to be courageous too. The road to high performance is daunting. By definition, it involves moving away from the ordinary: that mindset you've been falling back on…
On Leadership and Business Book Excerpts Sections 1-2 by Ed Robinson
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.…
The One Thing by Gary Keller
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…
Reading Summaries
Be The Best Part of Their Day
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,…
How to Be a Great Boss
By focusing on understanding and developing employees, setting clear expectations, and recognizing achievements, managers can create a motivated and high-performing team. Implementing these principles ensures a productive and positive work environment, driving both…
Great Teams: 16 Things High-Performing Organizations Do Differently
These insights remind us that great teams are not just about individual talent but about collective effort, shared vision, and a commitment to the greater good. Through thoughtful reflection and application of these…
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