I am often reminded how hard it is to lead up—influencing, not just reacting, to those who have a higher position than us. You may be the top dog at your organization, but for most people, we have a boss. For me, in my current work I have partners I am accountable to. As the […]

Recently, I was adamant with a few team members that I was right regarding a situation that had caused some drama behind the scenes. I was even taking the moral high ground. Then after a leader confronted me with another perspective, I realized it was me who was wrong. Shocking? No. I am a human. […]

Here is a a powerful lesson I recently learned to reframe our mindset to empower our organizations to stand out. Usually, we try to do things better than our competition. This is good. In fact, if you were to list all the things you do better than your competitors, what would they be? Now here […]

Last week, I shared a beautiful experience my wife and I had with an airline representative. Unfortunately, having good customer service on airline carriers is not the norm. I travel a few times a year with US carriers, and I am consistently astounded by the subpar customer service of most of them. In this article, […]

Years ago, I traveled with my wife, Joanne, to Miami on American Airlines in a small plane of about fifty people. Joanne unbuckled her seatbelt to go to the restroom. By the time she made it to the back of the plane, we started experiencing severe turbulence, and she was not able to walk back […]

One of the great leaders of the Bible is King David. Here are a few leadership lessons from his life that I have extracted and been meditating on. Beginning with 1 Samuel 18:5, “So David went out wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war, and he […]

I have had my fair share of leadership failures. About 10 years ago, my then small team and I started a physical therapy facility. We did not have the time or know-how to make it successful. We closed our doors about a year later. Immediately after this, voices of doubt and defeat began to speak […]

I would like to issue a challenge to you today: Whatever you are trying to create, whatever you keep editing and refining, whatever you keep working on ‘one more time’ to make perfect—stop thinking and launch! You can always improve it later. Launching Is Winning Some may disagree. They may say, “Imagine if Apple launched […]

What is a second mile organization? If smiling and basic gestures of customer service are going the first mile, then going the second mile is when we extend ourselves beyond what is expected. There is a lot of competition in the first mile, but that’s not what keeps people coming back. Going the second mile […]

Imagine you are in your mid-twenties, a newly-minted leader, in line to become the supervisor of a person in their mid-thirties or forties. Currently in my late forties, I often have people in their fifties and sixties on my team. At more than one point in my leadership, I can tell you that this very […]

I recently went to Kroger (a grocery store chain in Texas) to buy a tenderloin to grill. It was a cold day, and their meat department was closed. I asked one of the associates if he could help me. He came to the meat department but said he was not sure he could get me […]

Love. One aspect of love is to care about a person’s well-being irrespective of what they can give back to you and regardless of what they may do to you. When practiced, love is powerful. But it is not practical unless it is guided by boundaries. Establish Boundaries with Confidence Many draw on the life […]