This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. How do you build your team into a well-oiled machine? Use the Terrace Strategy.…
Tag: 100 Days of Leadership
The Invisible Hand
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. It’s the invisible hand of leadership. When a leader walks into a room, they…
A Proper Place for Hope
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. “Hope is not a strategy. Luck is not a factor. Fear is not an…
Seeing Through Groupthink
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Groupthink is the enemy of greatness. It’s the enemy of imagination, and a friend…
The Peacock Effect
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. The collective ego is like a peacock. When you speak to one “eye,” you…
The Delicate Truth Principle
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Any good leader can deliver the truth. But only the great leader knows how…
Territorial Leadership
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Good leadership structures are hierarchical. But good leadership is not. It’s territorial. The author…
Brick by Brick
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. There’s a famous tale of a traveler who came across three men working on…
Win and Help Win
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. I no longer subscribe to the idea of “live and let live.” Instead, there’s…
Plants, Not Commodities
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Plants—like the flowers your dad plants in his back yard, like the cacti you…
Falling to the Level of Your Training
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. “We don't rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level…
It’s Not Personal
This is an essay free verse poem from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. It’s not personal. When someone blames you, When someone turns on…
Leveraged Language
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. As a leader, your language is the ultimate form of leverage. It costs you…
Still the Pendulum
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. If there’s one useful leadership idea to be learned from the state of media…
Give Ego a Soft Landing
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. The ego is nothing more than a fragile vase that, if large enough, will…
Do the Dirty Dishes
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. As a leader, you don’t deserve to be followed, listened to, trusted, or respected.…
Finding Your Vocal Equilibrium
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. The less you talk, the more people listen. The more you talk, the less…
The Inevitability of Success
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Success is a function of time. When you treat it as such, success becomes…
Empowerment All the Way Down
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. One of the most powerful ideas I ever learned from one of my restaurant…
The Oil & Water Strategy
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Every team has overperformers and underperformers. Let your people spend long enough in either…
The Architect and the Archaeologist
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. There are two types of leaders: architects and archaeologists. Only one can see the…
The Four Irrefutable Laws of Tactical Leadership
This is a series of essays within my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Tactics are to strategy what chapters are to a book, what stones…
Build a Moat. But Lower the Drawbridge.
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Most leaders tend to start by building their castle, surrounding it with water, and…
The Power of Detachment
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. One thing you learn immediately in leadership is that in the heat of the…
The Saltshaker Theory
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Always move the saltshaker back to the center of the table. That is the…
The Moment of Conversion
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Let’s say you just got the call from your boss, superior, or higher-up. They…
The Roots of Leadership
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Like the roots of a tree, the roots of principled leadership dig deep beneath…
The Bowtie Theory of Influence
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Like a bowtie, to become an influential leader, you must converge on yourself before…
What I Learned from a Four-Star General
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Four-Star General Michael Hayden, a former director…
Flaunt Your Heroes
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. On your rise to the top, your heroes will serve as more than just…
Balancing Life’s Checkbook
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. There is an unusual, yet really powerful heuristic for leadership that I’ve subconsciously used…
The Isolated Leader
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. In leadership, isolation is an ever-present double-edged sword. There are merits to being isolated…
The Chosen Leader
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Become the leader, before you are ever chosen. The chosen leader is someone who…
The Only Excuse for Conformity
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. If you’ve read any of my writing, you know I am a bit of…
The Dichotomy of Detail
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Attention to detail can be your best friend, or it can be your worst…
Leathermindedness
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. I just sat in a writing group with a bunch of outstanding writers from…
The Art of Leading Laterally
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Leading laterally is a remarkably difficult, yet necessary form of leadership. Before you can…
Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” It’s an old Navy SEAL saying about efficiency…
What Do You Do When No One is Looking?
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. What you do when no one is looking will define who you are when…
Transcendental Innovation
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. The word “transcendental” in the dictionary offers definitions in three subjects: spirituality, philosophy, and…
The Iteration Game
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Playing the iteration game makes you fearless and egoless—the pinnacle of leadership. My friend…
Great Leaders Imitate
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. All great leaders imitate their heroes. They realize that in order to achieve greatness,…
The Three I’s of Leadership
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. This is the first essay in a four-part miniseries on leadership development. If you…
Mettle Moments
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. They’re the moments when you’ve reached your breaking point. They’re the moments when you…
Be the Lighthouse
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. If you’re not the captain of the ship, be the lighthouse that guides it.…
Third-Order Thinking
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Third-order thinking is the Mount Everest of cognitive performance. It’s a climb few people…
Hone Your Strategic Mind
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory, tactics without strategy is the…
Accountability is Currency
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Leadership can be bought. And the only currency accepted is accountability. Everywhere you go,…
The Leader Does Not Seek to Lead
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Leaders who seek to lead are no leaders at all. Leaders who seek to…
The Other Side of Fear
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. “What’s on the other side of fear? …Nothing…”Jamie Foxx Fear is a killer. It’s…
The Fine Line Between Leadership and Manipulation
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. When you boil it down, leadership and manipulation are identical twins. They both cultivate…
Know When to Lead
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Leadership isn’t always so cut and dry. There are times when leaders must follow,…
The Crossover to Insecurity
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Insecurity is just the seed of imposter syndrome, planted. Most people confuse the two…
Failure is a Force of Nature
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. I have a confession to make. I’ve never told anyone because it sounds utterly…
Idolization is Impotence
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. In their song “Cult of Personality,” the band Living Colour described the idolization of…
Tunnel Vision is for Trains
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. “A compass will point you true north from where you're standing, but it's got…
The Price of Indecision
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Indecision is almost always worse than making a bad decision. On the first day…
Be Grounded. But Don’t Dig In.
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Great leaders define the “what,” and leave the “how” up to the team. Steve…
The Cure for Imposter Syndrome
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. For the cure for imposter syndrome, look no further than the blue Eurybia butterfly.…
Don’t See Luck. Seed Luck.
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Luck is the tree you planted last week, last month, or last year. It…
To Ask is Human
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. To ask is not weakness. To ask is human. One of my deepest flaws…
Plant Your Flag Where No One Dares
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. To establish yourself as a leader, one way to do it is to boldly…
Learn the Canon
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Here’s a secret everyone knows but no one does: reading and learning from the…
Live the Long Game
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Becoming a leader is a lot like squeezing toothpaste. You can’t put it back…
Hungry, but Not Starving
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Here’s the optimal setting for you and every individual you lead: hungry, but not…
Writing Makes You a Better Leader
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. My favorite college professor once said something that has always stuck with me, “great…
The Bystander Effect of Leadership
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Think you can’t be a leader? Think again. It seems that most people, in…
Think Like an Owner
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. “If you think like the owner and you act like the owner, it’s only…
Finding Truth in a Hall of Mirrors
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Every truth reveals itself if you pursue it far enough. Except, in the 21st…
Eustressing?
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. Hell Week is the infamous five-day period of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training when…
The Mimetic Theory of Leadership
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. “Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns…
Want to be an Effective Leader? Get a Dog.
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. When I tell people about my dog, Pearl, I almost always follow it up…
Wear the Purple Tunic
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. If you’re afraid to look bad, you’ll never be an effective leader. Tyrian purple…
Permissionless Leadership
This is an essay from my popular 100 Days of Leadership Series. If you would like to learn how to become a leader in your organization, your community, or in your personal life, sign up here to receive these short essays directly to your inbox. You don't need permission to lead. It’s often said that…