If you have read any of my posts over the last few months then you’ll know I’ve been focusing my efforts and energy on four things: marriage, memories (with my family), health and home. This has proven to be a valuable activity and has been the catalyst for deeper reflection. This reflection has led to some changes I am making with my writing practice.
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Recently I went rappelling with a large group and I observed some interesting archetypes of leadership. Specifically, what it looks like to share leadership.
Our repelling expedition, if you can call it that, consisted of a group of 25 people. Most of which were novices or had never been rappelling before. I am in the novice group. As we spent time together it was fascinating to witness clear leadership roles come out.
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Bob Sutton has been a considerable influence on me on how I think about scaling. Recently he taught me about three intertwined scaling challenges.
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My six-year-old daughter is a gem, she is adorable, expressive, loving, fierce, loyal, and kind. She is also stubborn as all get out and knows exactly how to push my buttons as a father.
For over a year I’ve been trying to figure out how I can be a better dad and nurture my six-year-old. I’ve tried many small experiments and most lead to me getting frustrated or triggered when she’s in the mood to push my buttons.
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Seth Godin has attributed his success to the fact that he has failed more than anyone he knows. If you don’t know Seth Godin, he has been writing daily on his blog since 2002 and is one of the leading thinkers of our time.
When I heard him share this idea in a podcast I listened to, it made me think of something that wasn’t immediately obvious to me.
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This month I came across a paradox that struck me as incredibly powerful.
One must be highly prepared to adapt.
At a leadership development event I was hosting I took some time to reflect on what I am called to do. The event was at a golf course, and I was looking out over the course and I saw various holes. Each hole has its own obstacles, terrain, and challenges.
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Awhile back I wrote about boundary conditions and how when we expand our boundary conditions, we can find greater growth.
I am one that does not like to show too much emotion. All my life I have been steady, not too hot and not too cold. This has served me well in many things, but it has meant that I have a narrow range of emotions and it is limiting to me and impacts the way I connect with others.
In a recent class with leaders at Microsoft I pushed against my boundary conditions.
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There is no one way to build a leadership development program but there are key ideas and thoughts that we do not want to forget when designing one. I’ll share with you one of them here.
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Building and strengthening your own leadership and the leadership of others is not an easy task. It requires focus, intentionality, and most often a mindset shift.
The beginning of this mindset shift for me happened right after college. I was working for a serial entrepreneur who taught me about Don Clifton and the early days of positive psychology. He had the following research question after finding there were mountains of research studies about how to “fix” psychological challenges we all face in life.
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I teach and invite people to act. Proud husband, father and amateur pizzaiolo