Thought Leaders

When I have had opportunity to teach Graduate Research over the years, I admonish my students to be unashamedly skeptical. Question everything. Ask for evidence. Challenge assumptions. Accept nothing that includes a lot of handwaving, diversion, evasion, smoke,...

The late Dr. Stephen Covey oft advised us that "the main thing is to keep the Main Thing the MAIN THING." One of the most impactful of my mentors over the years -- Gary Harrell -- reminded me regularly to remain focused first and foremost on the things of "eternal...

Perfection...... isn't. Not possible. Can't get there. Pipe dream. Pure dereliction. What we can do is get better. Every day. On purpose.  That better state, however, is not the result of wishing. It happens only when we think carefully about...  WHAT we're doing, WHY...

The wisest leaders I have observed somehow manage to be in their office minimally. Instead, they continually move about the various work spaces of the organization. It's almost as if they're allergic to the office. There is method to that madness, it seems. Some of...

We often refer to the gaining of support as BUY-IN. Too often that phrase is thought of in the past tense, as if it's already in the books, a done deal, a ship sailed. Not so. The work of gaining and maintaining BUY-IN is an ongoing process, not an event. Masters at...

We have limited time, limited energy, limited resources, limited bandwidth, and limited attention. There are a bazillion things and many people (10s? 100s? 1000s?) that compete for our time, energy, resources, bandwidth, and attention. We get to decide what's...

Some of the smartest people I know play dumb a lot. They steadily pitch questions at us that make us think. Then those crafty characters glean the collective wisdom that comes out of the responses to their powerful questions. Here are some things I've noticed in the...

The teams I have worked with over the years have likely grown weary of hearing this steady admonition from me: "If we can't model it, we can't demand it." As I think about that declaration -- while looking in my own metaphorical mirror -- several dimensions of this...

We sometimes get so busy being productive that we forget to be present. There is tremendous power in being present, fully present. Here are some of the things that manifest, and are perceived as, presence: Non-distracted eye contact. Interest in the person, not just...

The best teachers I know follow this recipe: Relentlessly craft lessons that cause students to acquire and retain knowledge relevant to the subject matter. On continuous loop, in many and varying ways. Persistently present students with skill development activities...