This week my team met for strategic planning. We set aside several days so the leadership team could review our values, goals, and budget. We’re just finishing up today, actually. But Day 1 was dedicated not just to leaders, but to the full team. Why? I prioritize my team. Customers are important for a business. […]

Many people fail because they are afraid to dream. Their thinking is too small. In this post I provide seven steps for becoming a big thinker.

Several years ago, I was having a really rough day at the office. It seemed everything that could go wrong was going wrong—at the worst possible time.

Years ago, I heard a motivational speaker encourage his audience to “eat that frog.” The line has a long history. And it makes sense: Stop procrastinating and just do the thing you fear. Once you do that, everything else is easy. While that may be helpful in overcoming procrastination, it’s exactly backwards for big goals […]

Leadership and entrepreneurial breakthroughs depend on creativity. But we don’t always feel very creative, do we? Thankfully, research suggests we all have access to the kind of creativity we need to get the results we want—even if you don’t feel especially creative. Last week I went fly fishing on Hesse Creek in East Tennessee. Nothing […]

I’m not much of a baseball fan. I played in high school, but I lost interest after breaking my elbow. So while most of my friends were deep into game seven of the World Series, I went to bed. Then they woke me up. Several of us were staying in a vacation home for a […]

I used to watch Apple’s product events with eager anticipation. But when I watched the most recent one, I was disappointed. I’m a serious Machead. But if I’m honest, I think they’re losing their mojo. It’s a cautionary tale, one that Steve Jobs actually warned about. Using IBM and Xerox as examples, Jobs explained the […]

When I was the CEO at Thomas Nelson, one of our authors was frustrated. In response to a disappointing sales report, he fired off a blistering email to one of our divisional leaders. He complained about poor results. He criticized the sales strategy and our failure to execute. Worse, he challenged the leader’s intelligence, competence, […]

Ever wonder why some people are likable and others aren’t? Without a high likability quotient, it’s tough to succeed in almost any area of life—especially as a leader or entrepreneur. If you want to win with people, they not only have to know you; they also have to trust you. Likability is the bridge between […]

Good conversationalists have great influence. In this post, I share five strategies I have learned for having better conversations.