CHARACTER: The Undervalued Virtue of Human Goodness
“Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny. It is the light that guides […]
THE UNTAPPED POWER OF EMPOWERMENT
After a recent speaking engagement, I went back to my Best Western hotel room in St. Albert, Alberta. On the coffee table I found this note with a little gift bag containing a bottle of water and a candy bar. Since receiving this inspiring little note of kindness, I have used it to illustrate leadership […]
AMPLIFY YOUR LEADERSHIP IMPACT
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as being able to remake ourselves.” – Mahatma Gandhi The greatest challenge we face today, and upon which our very survival as a species depends, is the task of learning to live in harmony with ourselves, with each other, […]
FORGET YOUR PERFECT OFFERING
Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. – Leonard Cohen Every leader has cracks, imperfections in their personality. Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gandhi, John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela – all had cracks. All the great contributors of our time had flaws. […]
CELEBRATE AUTUMN With THE OTHER EVEREST
It’s been many years since my daughters were returning to school in early September. But I still get nostalgic this time of year. Maybe it stems from the years I started back to school as a child or taught university and looked forward to returning to the classroom. Or maybe it’s because my corporate year-end […]
AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP The Strength of Your Presence Means Being Present to Life
A participant who attended one of my leadership programs earlier in the spring has been traveling with her daughter in Europe and sent me an email with a line that has not left me: “…while traveling I’ve had time to not think at all, just wonder and be amazed…” This put me into a reflective […]
Heroic Leadership: Lessons From The Golden Knights – By Fr. Max Oliva, S.J.
Well, the professional hockey season is over and the Washington Capitals have the Stanley Cup. Congratulations to the team. But that is not the main story for many of the rest of us. Our story is composed of part magic, part luck, and what I like to call the “four qualities of heroic leadership.” Let […]
THE SEASONS OF LIFE: The Art of The Long View
There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn to live without judgement, so he sent them each on a quest to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, […]
REFLECTIONS ON THE OTHER EVEREST RETREAT
“You are a leader second. First, you are a human being.” – John Scherer I know from my own research, and my more than thirty years of experience in the leadership development field, that now more than ever, the world is in need of leaders who are committed to substance over superficial, character over charisma, and […]
Lessons From a Restaurant Manager
The past few weeks I have noticed just how much caring there is in the world around us. Perhaps it is because I have written a book on caring and I believe that what you focus on is what grows. It’s the simple acts of kindness that have a powerful impact on the people around […]
