Three cars ahead of me he stepped out into traffic. It was the morning rush hour so everyone was inching along – he was not in any kind of real danger. Unbeknownst to me, I was the one who was in danger. He waved on the car in front of me, then he pointed directly at me and flagged me …

“I want to start writing”, she offered with a mix of insecurity, fear and courageous resolve. Wow. Very cool. “Any idea what kind of writing?”, we inquired. “Not really, creative writing – poetry I think.”, she tentatively replied. And that was the beginning of it… Over 8 years ago good friends of ours sat with us on our deck in …

“Wow, I have never experienced anything like that before!”, he commented with emotion written all over his face. We had just completed what I call an “Affirmative Close” to a segment of our leadership session. This is something I just added to our meetings. In fact, today was the first day. It clearly had a very positive impact on this …

“I have an open door policy”, she stated with proud resolve tinged with a hint of regret. Her door was always open. No matter what, no matter when, her staff could always walk into her office and touch base on whatever they wanted to discuss. Sounds good right? Maybe not… “How is that workin’ for you?”, I inquired. And then …

It has been said that people will forget what we said.  They may remember what we did.  But, they will always remember how we made them feel. I had the great privilege recently of participating in the global TEC/Vistage annual conference in Los Angeles.  I was one of the MCs for the event and co-led a couple of workshops.  At …

It charged at us with a ferocity no one in this group of leaders had experienced ever before. “What is it? What is it? What should we do? Where should we go?”. Scores of questions raced through our minds in a nanosecond. Our varied responses belied a hidden personality we had yet to see in each other. This particular group …

How’s your vision? I’m not talking about your eyes, but the eyes of your heart.  Are you a visionary?  How far can you see? Every organization needs vision: they need to know where they are going, what they are capable of, what their potential is, what growth looks like.  If leadership is helping people be better, then vision is knowing …

He stood on the track intently looking down his lane.  He was loosely shaking his legs one at a time to keep them warm, to keep them relaxed.  He was training, but he needed to approach every run, every race, as if it were the Olympic Games. Every time he stepped on the track he needed to be completely focused …

Do you like fires?  I love fires. There is something very soothing about basking in the warmth of a fire.  The sound of the crackling wood, the scent of smoke, the power of the fire contained in such a way that it brings life and not destruction…all very compelling. I’ve noticed something about guys in particular: we can sit for …

He was reticent.  He was timid.  He was fearful.  He was passive. He was 5 years old. Benjamin, our son, had been skiing for 1 year, but he was still not very confident on the slopes.  No matter what the run was, he was a very timid skier.  He skied as if he were afraid.  He knew what to do.  …