I was reminded of a valuable lesson in a team meeting recently. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss an event our team will host this year. After setting aside an entire afternoon to prepare ideas, I felt very confident about what I was bringing to the meeting. But soon after the meeting began,…

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Asking personal leadership questions is one of the most powerful and effective things you can do to improve your life, your leadership, and your organization. Great self-accountability questions often stem from a difficult situation in our lives. As people, our natural tendency when dealing with a challenge of some kind is to become frustrated. That…

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I love the month of December. It’s one of my favorite times each year, because people are encouraged to be generous and kind, and spend time investing in their most important relationships. I look forward to being with my family, sharing old memories and making new ones. I look forward to celebrating the victories of…

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Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. These past two weeks have been filled with my favorite time of reflection and planning, and now I feel ready to face all the challenges and opportunities of the new year. I’m especially looking forward to an upcoming opportunity: to communicate some of my…

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What’s the one thing all successful people have in common? Some would say it’s great ability or intelligence. But we all can probably think of someone who’s not particularly talented who’s doing quite well. Others would point to a privileged upbringing. In other words, a head start via training or opportunities that others didn’t have.…

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“Time waits for no man.” You’ve probably heard that saying. And it’s true; time marches on, and it’s up to us to keep up with it. We need to be conscious of the clock, or we’ll never make any progress toward our goals. But I believe there’s more to success than reaching goals. True success…

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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.…

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This Monday at The John Maxwell Company we had our annual “work family” Thanksgiving dinner.  It was enjoyable, incredible, and phenomenal to say the least. What made it even more special were the people we had there. Although, the thought did cross my mind as I saw the turkey and dressing continue to diminish what…

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Connecting is the leadership ability to identify with and relate to people in such a way that it increases your influence with them. Connecting demands constant attention on the part of the leader so that people stay tuned in to the vision, values, and priorities of the organization. The trick is to keep the connection…

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Parents of toddlers and teenagers understand a simple truth about being a leader: sooner or later you encounter fierce resistance. Leadership feels a lot like peddling uphill, swimming upstream, or running into a stiff headwind. The challenge is to overcome the resistance instead of being overwhelmed by it. 1) Be Aware that Motion Creates Friction…

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