I had the genuine honor and pleasure of working with Wally Bock over the last week as he prepared for and then brilliantly served as Guest Host for Leadership Chat on Tuesday night. Our Topic was, “Military Leadership Lessons We Are Truly Meant to Learn.” Wally has an exceptional summary of important military history and leadership lessons that […]
I had the great honor of hearing two recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor speak on Friday at a public event in my small, suburban Chicago community. It was a tremendously moving, probably once-in-a-lifetime experience. According to the Medal of Honor Society: The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an […]
I continue to meet leaders that confuse the concept of having a vision with setting goals. Our conversations sound a bit like this: Lisa – “So tell me about your vision for the company.” Leader – “Well, we’re looking to get into the xyz market and want to be number one in the local market by next year.” […]
I came across an article this weekend about a recent study done at Northwestern, one of my alma maters, that suggests “Leadership remains a man’s world.” The leadership study examined the extent to which stereotypes of leaders are culturally masculine. It concluded that, “All 3 paradigms demonstrated overall masculinity of leader stereotypes.” Now, it did go on to say, […]
Last week I experienced a very difficult, watershed day. It was the kind of day where you experience just about every emotion known to man and wish desperately that you had the power to turn back the clock. The truth is, I’ll be “going through it” – the pain and reality of it – for […]
Have you ever led “from the outside?” It’s a common occurrence; a family-owned company realizes it’s time to bring in new leadership blood – literally – or a corporation hires a new leader from the outside. As the new leader you come to the table with a valued set of experiences and skills. But the […]
I wrote a post recently about how I begin many of my introductory client conversations by asking the individual an illuminating leadership question, “What are you passionate about?” I have realized over time that it is much easier for many leaders to respond to this question than to begin by asking them what their leadership […]
Two hundred thirty-five years ago our Founding Fathers, having risked their lives over the course of many years creating a new nation, achieved their vision for our magnificent country…independence. No one defined the great risks they took through their visionary leadership more simply than Benjamin Franklin when he said, “We must hang together, gentlemen…else, we […]
Yes, I realize I am a slow-adopter when it comes to technology. I took my first GPS-aided road trip this past weekend and the device literally drove me mad. I believe it was through this experience that I came to realize why the topic of Visionary Leadership is such a passion of mine: I simply […]
At last week’s Leadership Chat we focused on the art of praise in leadership development. We talked about how praise has the ability to transform our perspective on our company, our role, our team and even the mission we take on as leaders. This week, Steve Woodruff and I would like to switch gears and […]