Category Archive: Taking others higher

Feel Like Blowing Up? Here’s How!

I never met a leader worth their salt that wasn’t angry about something. Anger is easy to feel but hard to express, usefully. Occasionally, great leaders blow up. It’s recorded that Jesus flew… Continue reading →

What the Heck is a “Ding in the Universe”

I never appreciated Steve Jobs’ quote, “I want to put a ding in the universe,” until I talked with Gary Hamel, Wall Street Journal’s #1 most influential business thinker. I asked Gary what… Continue reading →

Creating a Hoop Free Zone

Sluggish organizations require hoops before action. Dogs enjoy jumping through hoops, people don’t. Hoops represent frigid control. Passion is inversely proportional to the number of hoops required. Hoops are roadblocks masquerading as protection. Why it matters:… Continue reading →

Turning Pickle Barrels into Wine Casks

Unrelenting pressure, backstabbing and undercutting, fatigue, feeling powerless and under appreciated spawn burnout. According to Maslach and Jackson the six factors of burnout are: Working too much. Unjust environments. Little support. Working where… Continue reading →

Organizations Where Average Leaders Excel

By definition most of us are average. Even though: 68% of the faculty at the University of Nebraska rate themselves in the top 25% of teaching ability. 90% students see themselves as more… Continue reading →

How to Make Subordinates Colleagues

***** You must give power in order to empower?  Empowerment is giving qualified people  power and permission to act. Empowerment fails when leaders talk empowerment but hang on to permission or make it… Continue reading →