You’ve got to get better. Everyone does. The torch of self-improvement should burn bright and shouldn’t flame out until very late in life. You will never ‘graduate’ as a leader. You will never be granted absolution from the obligation to improve. The people you lead...
In the same way you learn leadership from leaders, law from lawyers, and art from artists, you learn most about risk-taking from risk-takers. Emerson once wrote, “The great distinction between teachers sacred or literary is that one class speaks from within, or from...
In early 1960, Dr. Frances Kelsey was given her first assignment as a new employee with the FDA. After being on the job for only one month, she was asked to evaluate an application for a new drug by the pharmaceutical company Richardson-Merrell. The drug, being...
Reward Courageous Behavior, Not Just Successful Outcomes It is important to differentiate between a successful outcome and a courageous act. Being courageous, by definition, means to take on challenges despite the potential for failure. Courageous workers do, in fact,...
One challenge most leaders face is how to inspire more workplace creativity. Elevating people to higher standards of performance and inspiring useful ideas requires igniting their imaginations. Open-door leaders are keen to prevent complacency and lethargy. They know...
Sometimes the best way for a leader to reveal how passionately they care about an issue is to get very, very angry. I am not suggesting that a leader should use anger to intimidate people. Quite the contrary. The kind of anger I’m speaking of often enlists people to...
People often ask me how I define courage. My usual response is that what matters more is how you define courage. What does courage look like to you? Who are some courageous role models in your own life? When an organization brings me in to build workplace courage, one...
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