Entries by David Irvine

Become a Digital Minimalist

Recently I watched a family in a restaurant as they ate their entire meal looking at their phones. None of them actually interacted with each other the whole time. Tech companies design devices and apps to be addictive. It’s how they make their money. In my Authentic Leadership Academies, I ask participants is to leave […]

Psychological Safety: It’s About Good Leadership

Psychological safety, no matter how you spin it, boils down to basic good leadership. And good leadership is best measured by one question: Do people feel safe to bring you the bad news? There’s always bad news. People make mistakes. Expectations aren’t met. Frustrations arise. Don’t gauge the health of your leadership by the amount […]

RISE ABOVE – Unleashing Potential Through the Power of Accountability

From the ages of fourteen to eighteen I worked part-time alongside Bob Dye, a carpenter that my parents hired for renovation projects. I remember the care that Bob put into his work. He was a true craftsman. He left nothing to chance. He took pride in his work. He taught me how to hold a […]

From Struggle To Emergence: Adversity as a Call To Creation

When I launched my speaking profession, I partnered exclusively with a speakers’ bureau. Speakers’ bureaus serve a great purpose as intermediaries between professional speakers and clients. They represented me, did all the negotiations, booking, marketing, and event coordination. After three years of working with them, they went bankrupt. It was devastating. I was shocked, angry, […]

Territory vs. Hierarchy

In Steven Pressfield’s book, The War Of Art, he describes how, in the animal kingdom, individuals define themselves either by their rank within a hierarchy (a hen in a pecking order, a wolf in a pack) or by their connection to a territory (a home base, a hunting ground, a turf). It’s also how humans […]