A Leadership Conversation with Jesus of Nazereth
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…
Your Actions Resources
Leadership actions should be both consistent and effective. It’s much harder to get things done if you are focused on the wrong things and executing sporadically. Your employees need to believe that you know what you are doing and the best way to demonstrate that is through your actions.
Blog Posts
Leadership Is Always on Stage
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…
Presidents’ Day Leadership Lessons: What George Washington and Abraham Lincoln Teach Us About Grit, Resilience, and Courage
Presidents’ Day is more than a long weekend or a retail event. At its core, it is a moment to reflect on leadership at its highest stakes. It is a day to ask…
Standing Up to Bullies: Leadership, Courage, and the Cost of Silence
You Have to Stand Up to a Bully You have to stand up to a bully. It doesn’t matter whether it shows up in your personal life, your business, or public leadership—you have…
Sometimes the Things You Don’t Want to Do Matter the Most
Sometimes the Things You Don’t Want to Do Matter the Most Sometimes it’s important to do the things you don’t want to do—but know you need to do. We all feel fatigue. We…
How CEOs Turn January Energy into Year-Long Execution Momentum
What Happens to Execution Momentum? Every January, I see the same pattern play out. Leaders come back from the holidays energized. Plans feel crisp. Whiteboards are full. Offsites are optimistic. And for a…
The CEO’s Playbook for 2026: From Ambition to Achievement
The CEO’s Playbook for 2026 Most CEOs I work with aren’t short on ideas, intelligence, or ambition. What they’re short on is clarity, focus, and execution capacity in an environment that keeps getting…
Wisdom From a Master: Pat Murray’s Five Leadership Truths
Pat Murray’s legacy, and why he still matters Pat Murray left behind a profound legacy. He served as a President of TEC (Now Vistage) before I became a Chair and, for decades, was…
How to Build a High-Performance Small Business
High performance is achievable You don’t need jargon to run a tighter, faster shop. You need a simple way to set priorities, make decisions quickly, and keep work moving without drama. I think…
Are You a Steak Knife or a Butter Knife Leader?
Are You a Steak Knife or a Butter Knife Leader? A few weeks ago, I watched a business leader wrestle with a decision he already knew he needed to make. Every week, he’d…
Recommended Reading
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
At its core, the Jonathan Livingston Seagull book summary is about choosing growth over comfort. Jonathan rejects the norms of his flock, embracing failure, repetition, and isolation in pursuit of mastery. His journey…
Why Can’t We Be Good?
Introduction Why Can’t We Be Good? by Jacob Needleman takes on one of the most uncomfortable but important questions of human life: if we know what is right, why do we so often…
Don’t Believe Everything You Think
Book Introduction Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen is a powerful and eye-opening book that challenges one of our most basic assumptions—that our thoughts are always true. Nguyen explains that much…
Reading Excerpts
The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews
Join bestselling author Andy Andrews on an extraordinary journey through time in The Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success. Blending fiction, self-help, and historical insight, this inspiring story follows David Ponder,…
Principles By Ray Dalio
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…
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…
The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday
Overcoming obstacles is a discipline of three critical steps. It begins with how we look at our specific problems, our attitude or approach; Then the energy and creativity with which we actively break…
Reflections On Life and Leading Book Excerpts – Part 2
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…
Reflections on Life and Leading Book Excerpts – Part 1
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…
On Leadership and Business Book Excerpts Sections 3-5 by Ed Robinson
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,…
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.…
How To Lead by David M. Rubenstein
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…
The Man In The Mirror
The visible you is the known you. It is never the real you. We have learned to speak and act in ways that allow us to cope with our world and peacefully coexist.…
Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine
Your mind is your best friend, but it is also your worst enemy. Positive Intelligence measures the relative strength of these two modes of your mind. High Positive Intelligence means your mind acts…
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
When making a decision, we will less frequently enjoy the luxury of fully considered analysis of the total situation but will revert increasingly to focus on a single, usually reliable feature of it……
Leadership: Essential Writings By Our Greatest Thinkers edited by Elizabeth D. Samet
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…
Emeralds of Oz by Peter Guzzardi
“We must fight the tendency to sleepwalk through our lives, and awaken. This is the fundamental aspect of the Hero’s Journey.” Insight #1: There are no mistakes, only lessons. There are right…
12 Rules For Life by Jordan B. Peterson
Foreword “…unchaperoned, and left to our own untutored judgment, we are quick to aim low and worship qualities that are beneath us” “…no matter how different our genes or life experiences may be,…
The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck
Several years ago, a colleague’s comments encouraged me to revisit the book, The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck. I am glad this happened because it resonated much differently with me twenty…
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…
How The Mighty Fall by Jim Collins
Five Stages of Decline: Hubris Born of Success Undisciplined Pursuit of More Denial of Risk and Peril Grasping for Salvation Capitulation to Irreverence or Death “The concept of hubris is defined as…
Happier By Tal Ben-Shahar
Happier by Tal Ben Shahar – Book Excerpts Part 1 and 2 Please click on this link for the Happier Book Summary. Part 1 (Pages 3-82): What is Happiness? “Even though…
Learning Leadership by Kouzes and Posner
Introduction: “The shortage of (exemplary) leaders is a result of three primary factors: demographic shifts, insufficient training and experiences, and the prevailing mindsets that discourage people from learning to lead.” “Exemplary leaders strive…
Time Really is Money By Rob Slee
Please click on this link for the Time Really is Money Book Summary Chapter 1 – Introduction: “…most business owners spend almost all of their time on less than $50 per hour…
Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg
Introduction “Productivity isn’t about working more or sweating harder.” “…productivity is about making certain choices in certain ways. The way we choose to see ourselves and frame daily decisions; the stories we tell…
The Thinking Life by P.M. Forni
Please click on this link for The Thinking Life Book Summary Introduction: “It is bizarre how many of us have been time-profligate engaging in frivolous searches or retooling our images on social…
How to Be a Leader by Martin Bjergegaard & Cosmina Popa
Please click on this link for the How to Be a Leader Book Summary Introduction: Bystanders vs. Leaders “Bystander apathy… Simply put, the more people who can help, the fewer actually…
Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist
Chapter 2: Wonder “The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.’ It makes us look at everything with a new appreciation.” Chapter 3: The Riddles of…
Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart by Dr. Gordon Livingston
Please click on this link for the Too Soon Old – Too Late Smart Book Summary “We are not what we think, or what we say, or how we feel. We are…
Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips
Introduction Lincoln stood for all that was right, honest, and self-evident. The foundation of Abraham Lincoln‘s leadership style was an unshakable commitment to the rights of the individual. The genius of leadership lies…
Reading Summaries
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Jonathan Livingston Seagull — Richard Bach This is a short book. You can read it in an hour. But if you read it right, it stays with you for years. It looks like…
The Traveler’s Gift
Seven Decisions That Shape a Life—and a Legacy In your own words: A journey through adversity, personal responsibility, and the kind of leadership that transforms lives. Andy Andrews takes us on a unique…
On Leadership and Business: Parts 3, 4, and 5
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…
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