What makes a humble leader? It’s the question I’ve been exploring recently to help us get a better understanding of the essential qualities and impact of a humble, self-effacing leader. It becomes clearer every day that the world could benefit from more of these kinds of leaders, and the next leader in the series certainly
I’ll never forget feeling like an utter failure in my second real job. Since I had excelled in technology and process in my first real job, I thought this new role — which involved managing the development of a customer-facing website — would play to my strengths. But the job turned out to be much
Two months ago, I started a daily exercise of focusing on one word in silence each morning. When I wrote about this ritual, some friends asked me what the word was, but I’ve been reluctant to reveal it because it’s often misunderstood and not celebrated in society. The word is meek. The Actual Meaning of
It seems hard to believe now, considering more than 367,000 people work for his company and its subsidiaries, but for years, this man had arranged his life around his fear. Fear had limited him in his leadership and in his ability to connect with others. But he had the courage to overcome that fear. In
With the subject line, “Worth Reading,” I dropped everything to read the email my wife sent me last week. She had linked to an article that spoke to the challenges parents have in balancing work and raising kids. My first thought after reading the article: “I’ve really grown in how I appreciate and collaborate with
It was during my second job when I realized I didn’t communicate as well as my dad. Unlike my dad and his dad, who were both successful in sales, I was a software developer. I could sit for hours in front of a computer wearing headphones, intently creating something with my mind and fingers on
A year and a half ago, three people presented our team with individual business opportunities. The first was to expand geographically. The second, to develop a new line of business. And the third was to target a new customer segment. Each opportunity, and the person presenting it, seemed like the right bet at the right
With one month remaining in 2017, I went to my mentor looking for a solution to a nagging concern. I’d noticed that during intense stretches of life and work, I’d become more dependent on having a nightly drink (or two) as a coping mechanism. Not that there’s anything wrong with drinking in moderation for enjoyment,
I recently started a new job. I had taken a few years off from my investment career to be home with my kids. During that time, I had the privilege of serving on several non-profit boards alongside many people of integrity and character, including a couple, Mark, and his wife, Kim, on two separate board
Viewing someone as a human doing rather than a human being is a slippery slope, and never has that been more evident than in the headlines lately. Human Doings vs Human Beings One way to understand how this “human doing” view arises is to think of it this way: People fulfill psychological and material needs