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Leadership Thought #389 – Never Lower the Bar

July 24, 2012

A leader’s primary job is to rally people around a common goal and convince them they are capable of much more than they think they are. People talk themselves out of success all the time. For the average person it is easy to identify obstacles and reasons why things can’t happen. As a result, we tend to lower the bar so we can make our goals achievable. Leaders should never lower the bar. They should expect more of themselves and their organizations and never settle for being average or second best.

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Leadership Thought #347 – You Must Have a Vision of the Future

May 3, 2012

It is surprising and frustrating how many business leaders simply make it up as they go along. Entrepreneurs typically start with a core idea and then if they are lucky have some initial success which requires them to actually build a business delivery model. Most of them then get bogged down in the day to day operation and fulfilling their product/service promise to their customers. Since most companies typically start out undercapitalized and growth eats cash, they also get caught up in basic financial issues which can be a major leadership distraction. Next thing they know they have a company on their hands and employees who expect to have a boss with a clue about the future and a strategic plan of action. It can all be very challenging and easy to fall into a survival rather than success mode.

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Leadership Thought #258 – Are You Prepared For The Unexpected?

December 7, 2011

70 years ago today our country was attacked at Pearl Harbor and the world was never the same. America, which hadn’t been subject to another country attacking our territory since The War of 1812, had to deal the terrible wave of war that would end up sweeping the globe and literally becoming a world war. While our political and military leaders had tried to prepare for this inevitability, we were still caught off guard and it took us about 2 years to get our footing and begin to turn the battle to our favor. We had to significantly scale up our industrial military industrial capacity and recruit millions of soldiers to sign up and join the fight which was taking places in multiple locations throughout the world. If you think about what was accomplished logistically in a relatively short period of time, it is quite impressive. Thank goodness we were up to the challenge.

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    Recommended Reading

  • The Rules of Thinking

    Richard Templar

    Watch Video SummaryView the Book

    A personal code to think yourself smarter, wiser, and happier We all envy the natural thinkers of this world. They have the best ideas, make the smartest decisions, are open-minded, and are never indecisive. Is there something they know that the rest of us don’t? Is it something we can all learn? The answer is […]

    Read more

  • Life Design Workbook

    Peggy and James Vaughan

    Summary of the Life Design WorkbookView the Book

      The Life Design Workbook is a comprehensive guide that empowers you to take control of your life by making intentional choices that reflect your true values and aspirations. Written by Peggy Vaughan and James Vaughan, Ph.D., this workbook serves as a transformative tool for self-discovery, personal growth, and purposeful living. Through a structured approach, the […]

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  • Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion

    Joseph Campbell - Selected and Edited by Diane K. Osbon

    Listen to Book Review AudioView the Book

    Please click on this link for the Reflections on the Art of Living – A Joseph Campbell Companion Book Summary   “Reflections on the Art of Living” offers a transformative perspective on the human experience. Campbell’s unique blend of scholarly knowledge and practical wisdom provides a framework for understanding personal experiences and finding meaning in […]

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    Favorite Articles

  • Three Lessons From Chatting About Strategy With ChatGPT

    While speculating about the future of AI is irresistible, the more practical question is how we can use it right now. Conversations about this are taking place in classrooms, newsrooms, and workplaces around the world. As business strategists, the authors wanted to see what generative AI could add to their work. They explored this question […]

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  • The Strategic Power of Hope

    Negativity attracts attention and is often equated with intelligence, so it’s no surprise that leaders often feel they need to focus on what might go wrong. That kind of defensive posture can be helpful, in that it allows leaders and organizations to detect problems and threats, but it can also narrow your focus, and in […]

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  • Four Leadership Loads That Keep Getting Heavier

    Four specific areas that most leaders care about have genuinely become more difficult in the past few years: hyping up their teams, getting to the truth, focusing on strategy, and staying sane themselves. But understanding how and why each of these leadership loads has become more difficult to carry can set you on the path […]

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    Helpful Websites

  • Resume Templates

    Easily create a standout resume with our customizable resume templates. Designed for various careers and optimized for ATS, each resume template highlights your strengths to attract the right opportunities. Start building yours today and unlock your next career move.

    View more

  • Llama

    Meta describes Llama as a family of large language models (LLMs) designed to advance artificial intelligence research and applications. These models, ranging from 7 billion to 70 billion parameters, are trained on vast datasets to understand and generate human-like text. Llama models are open-source, allowing researchers and developers to access and build upon them, fostering […]

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  • Perplexity

    Perplexity AI is an innovative conversational search engine that utilizes large language models (LLMs) to deliver accurate and concise answers to user queries. Founded in 2022, it aims to transform traditional search methods by providing direct answers rather than lists of links. The platform is designed to be user-centric, allowing individuals to ask questions and […]

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    Video Favorites

  • Doris Kearns Goodwin On Presidential Leadership

    Acclaimed American historian DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN on judging presidential leadership today versus national leaders of the past, President Obama’s fixation on Abraham Lincoln, the role of the media in toxic politics, and parallels between the deep divisions of today and the era of Teddy Roosevelt a century ago.

  • The basics of AI for business

    On the TED@BCG stage, AI pathfinder Philipp Gerbert dispels the myth of AI as a complex and mysterious tool for business. In reality, he says, even those of us outside Silicon Valley can have an intimate understanding of AI and put it to work today. Gerbert walks us through the ABC’s of AI and what […]

  • Reinventing creative thinking

    Thinking out of the box — it’s one of the most cited strategies for innovation. Corporate philosopher Luc de Brabandere pondered exactly what was happening in our minds when we think creatively, and shares his own perspective on this strategy. He argues that the most incredible ideas don’t come from just thinking beyond the perimeter […]

    Reading Excerpts

  • Principles By Ray Dalio

    Principles Book Summary   Part 1: Chapter 1 Over the course of our lives, we make millions of decisions that are essentially bets, some large and some small. It pays to think about how we make them because they are what ultimately determines the quality of our lives… We are all born with different thinking […]

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  • A Sense of Urgency – John Kotter

    Click on this link for the A Sense of Urgency Book Summary A Sense of Urgency – Book Excerpt (Click on this link for the Word document)   Chapter 1 – It All Starts With A Sense of Urgency …Go check, then you find people running, and they are stressed out. But this man (leader), […]

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  • The Truth About Leadership by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

    Please click mon this link for The Truth About Leadership Book Summary. The Truth About Leadership – Book Excerpts   The Truth About Leadership By James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner Book Excerpts   Introduction – The Ten Truths The first truth is that you make a difference. It is the most fundamental truth […]

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Interested in learning more about leadership?

Ed’s books on Leadership, Life and Business will elevate your knowledge and give you the confidence to apply it to your personal and professional life. 

Reflections on Life and Leading
On Leadership and Business

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