Archive for January 2014
Think Big, Start Small
Imagine walking along an outdoor trail during the middle of a pitch-black night. You’re a few hundred feet from your campground, and you have only a small flashlight to illuminate the path in front of you. Provided you know which way to go, it would be foolish to sit down and wait for the sun…
Read MoreHow Do I Go High as a Leader? With a Little Help from My Friends
Leaders are never self-made. If you want to go to the highest level, you can only do so with the help of others. The people closest to you determine your success or failure. Among the many decisions leaders make, one of the most important involves choosing the right companions. Making the Band As a budding…
Read MoreThink You’re Ready for Success? Prepare To Be Disappointing
Leaders who transform their neighborhoods, businesses, and communities have an unshakable sense of purpose. They are motivated by a bold and compelling vision that consumes their thoughts and fills them with passion. Such a vision demands sacrifices, unconventional choices, and tradeoffs that won’t always make sense to the leaders’ biggest fans: their friends and family.…
Read MoreWhen Opportunity Knocks
How do you respond when a great opportunity presents itself? I’m a firm believer in finding and embracing new opportunities. But I don’t chase an opportunity without evaluating it according to some specific criteria. How do I evaluate an opportunity? I run it through a series of tests. Only after it passes them do I…
Read MoreThe Problem of Pride
When you think of the word pride, does it strike you as positive or negative? There are certainly many positive types of pride. It’s good to “take pride in our work.” We like it when someone tells us, “I’m proud of you.” And nearly everyone wants to live in a neighborhood where people display “pride…
Read MoreWHY FOLLOW A DREAMER?
Many young, aspiring leaders have bold vision, exude passion, and abound with self-confidence—and yet no one follows them. Not only do they lack influence, people find them downright annoying. Consider the biblical character, Joseph. As a teenager, he dreamed of greatness and spoke nonstop to his eleven brothers about his grandiose vision of leading them…
Read MoreWhat Wisdom? What Wisdom!
Last month we focused on Gifts of Wisdom. I wanted to blog about one of the wisest things John Maxwell has taught me. “Invest in yourself more than others.” Two things I have learned from John’s insight. First, is one of capacity. Spend more time, energy and resources developing yourself. If you want to have…
Read MoreWhy You Need to Set Personal Goals This Year
One mark of high-achievers is goal-setting. Most of the successful people I know make it a priority to place targets at various points in the coming year and shoot for them. You might already be working on your list of goals now. It could be increasing your income, launching a product, or starting a new…
Read MoreKeeping Between the Ditches
Have you ever driven a car with terrible alignment? Even on a perfectly straight highway, the vehicle will drift into a ditch unless the driver constantly compensates for its misalignment. As part of normal driving, the springs in a car’s suspension system gradually stretch out, and the vehicle’s highly calibrated internal components get knocked off-kilter.…
Read MoreDo You Care Enough to Be Honest with Me?
As a leader, have you ever avoided confrontation with a follower for what you labelled “good” reasons? I think most of us have. And if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that we sometimes give in to this temptation. Why do we do that? I believe the main reason well-intentioned leaders aren’t completely honest with…
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