Monthly Archives: March 2014

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20 Things Leaders Should Say More Often

Words freely flow from our mouths. We say things we think matter and, more often than not, we say words that don’t matter.

It’s messed up I tell you! Why are we saying things that don’t matter instead of things that truly matter?

Let’s get into the habit of saying these 20 things leaders should say more often.

1. You’ve done a fantastic job.

2. Thank you for your hard work.

3. I appreciate what you’ve done for me.

4. Here’s 2 tickets to the Detroit Tigers game. (Not only will this make someone’s day, it’ll get two more Tigers fans to the stadium)

5. What can I do to make your job better?

6. I’ve messed up.

7. I don’t know. Let’s find out together.

8. How can we help each other?  Read more...

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The Day I Almost Died

Or maybe I didn’t almost die. Maybe I just came close to death in my mind. To me, that’s close enough.

So, what happened to make me come so close to death? What could have made me think that my life was going to end?

I thought I had met Death

Image by JD Hancock

This near death experience happened while I was ice climbing in Munising.

The day started out like any other ice climbing trip I’d ever been on. We arrived at the frozen waterfall. John, our ice climbing guide, setup the climbing routes. And we began to climb.

Then someone saw a perfect place to explore. There was beautiful ice and a way up behind the frozen waterfall.

My near death experience

Only this quick way up wasn’t so quick for me. Instead, it became a trial of fear and dread and the feeling of death crept upon me.  Read more...

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Mentor Like Yoda

Yoda is a lovable but tough teacher in the Star Wars universe. He took a young farm boy and helped him become a great Jedi.

We seen Yoda guide and mold the remarkable Luke Skywalker into someone who could take on the formidable Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader (the later he learns was really his father, GASP!).

You can be a Yoda to someone today

Image by JD Hancock

A recent blog post by Scott Cochrane inspired these. He said it’s a myth that your leadership mentor is Yoda.

Within the post, he gave great reasons on why he is not like Yoda. Especially the idea your leadership mentor will be all knowing (which they never will be).

I think I have to challenge this notion. Your leadership mentor can be like Yoda. In fact, I think YOU should be like Yoda.

If you want to be like Yoda, I think you can follow his lead by:  Read more...

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3 Questions You Must Ask Yourself Before Choosing To Lead

Leadership is an honor. It’s often a title or role that gets bestowed upon us without our choosing to lead.

But to lead effectively, we must choose to lead and run with the title given to us. This can be daunting and we’ll have questions.

In fact, I think there are 3 questions we must ask ourselves before choosing to lead.

These 3 questions will make a huge difference once you’ve made the choice.

You’ll have a firm foundation for leading. You’ll have answers for leading. You’ll have a reason for leading.

Question #1: The first question you MUST ask yourself is WHY do I want to lead?

Simon Sinek is a big proponent of starting with WHY. When you’ve settled on a WHY, your WHY will guide and direct you.  Read more...