As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, I have been thinking about what its history can teach us about leadership. America began with questions. Why must things remain the way they are? Could people govern themselves? Could a new kind of country be created? The founders did...
Somewhere along the way, kindness got a bad reputation in leadership. It became confused with weakness. With softness. By avoiding hard conversations. Letting people do whatever they want while everyone sits in a circle sharing feelings and pretending the quarterly numbers are just a social construct. That is not kindness. That...
Leadership is not built in the big moments people post about on LinkedIn. It is built in the quiet moments when pressure enters the room. The moment when people disagree with you. The moment when momentum is moving one way, but your principles tell you to stop. The moment...
Imagine a basketball team where nobody knows their position. The center brings the ball up the court because he happened to grab the rebound. The point guard is standing under the basket, trying to box out someone twice his size. The best shooter spends the entire game setting...
Here’s the problem: Most people don’t hear enough appreciation. Not because leaders don’t care. Most do. But work gets busy. Deadlines pile up. Meetings stack back-to-back. Feedback gets delayed. Everyone is moving fast, and appreciation quietly disappears into the noise. Meanwhile, your people keep doing good work and...
“Be impeccable with your word.” When Don Miguel Ruiz wrote that in The Four Agreements, he was offering a personal principle. But for leaders, it may be one of the most important ideas hiding in plain sight. Leadership doesn’t start with a three-year strategy, a polished deck,...
“I’ve never tried to be Steve. I’ve only ever tried to be myself.” — Tim Cook When Tim Cook took over as CEO of Apple in 2011, the narrative was simple: No one can replace Steve Jobs. That was fair. It was also the wrong question. Cook didn’t try...
Some people love WWE. Others dismiss it completely. “It’s fake.”“It’s not a real sport.”“It’s over the top.” And yet, millions tune in every week. They don’t just watch. They follow. They debate. They defend. They stay. That kind of loyalty doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because WWE understands something...
There’s a debate in marketing that just won’t die: Does growth come from standing apart, or from sticking in people’s minds? The textbooks love differentiation. Be unique. Carve out a niche. Invent a personality quirk. Wear a tiny hat, metaphorically speaking. But when you watch how real...
At any given moment, roughly 5% of your market is ready to buy. The other 95% are out of market and will buy three, six, or twelve months from now. Yet most brands allocate 80–90% of their budget to that tiny 5%. They pour resources into...