Insights

May 28

The Arena

“It is not the critic who counts; not the person who points out how the strong person stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena…,” Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on... read more →
May 25

Under The Bridge

Sonny Rollins is probably the greatest tenor saxophone player in all of jazz. His journey from a novice 8 year-old player to today owes as much to effort as talent. His life illustrates how technique “trumps” scheme when it comes to building any capacity including leadership. But what is technique... read more →
May 21

Begin With Boxes

My grandfather used to tell me, “It only gets real at the point of action. Everything that happens before the action is just preamble.” Anyone who knew my grandfather understood his pejorative use of the world ‘preamble’. He was a man of action.  As difficult as this pandemic has been,... read more →
Apr 23

Covid-19 Arouses Leading

“Our language fails us when we discuss and practice leadership. We talk about ‘leaders’ in organizations or politics when we actually mean people in positions of management or political authority. We constantly confound leadership and authority in nearly every journalistic or scholarly article written on leadership in the last hundred... read more →
Apr 21

Run Towards the Volcano

I have a quote taped to the wall in front of my computer. I don’t remember where I found it. It says “Run Towards the Volcano”. I was initially attracted to it because it is so counterintuitive. I aspire to be counterintuitive, but often my thinking leans towards conservative. It... read more →
Apr 15

Entering the Portal

In just two weeks, Covid19 erased all my beliefs and assumptions about how the world works. It destroyed my business model. It isolated me from all of humanity. It eroded my financial resources. Now I am about to find out how adaptive I really am.  I have spent the last... read more →
Mar 07

Weight

This post completes our tour of John Isaacson’s three important attributes needed to develop leadership capacity: hunger, speed and weight.  Here is John’s definition of weight:  “Weight concerns how someone carries his or her authority. It concerns the ability to learn and speak the truth to superiors fearlessly, but the... read more →
Feb 20

Speed

Last week, I introduced John Isaacson and his three important attributes needed to develop leadership capacity: hunger, speed and weight. That post focused on hunger. This week, speed gets the spotlight. John’s definition of speed: the capacity to learn quickly, mastering and retaining technical material that is relevant to one’s... read more →
Feb 10

Hunger

  John Isaacson lives in Boston, Massachusetts. I have never met him, yet he has influenced both the work I do with clients and my personal life. A friend of mine who continues to influence me introduced me to John’s way of thinking: Tom Gilmore. More on Tom in another... read more →
Jan 19

Quitter’s Day Surrenders to Small Wins

“The primary reason we do not work at areas in which we know we need to improve is that the rewards (and pleasures) are in the future; the disruption, discomfort and discipline needed to get there are immediate.”  David Maister Change This I’m a bike rider. I attempt to ride 100... read more →