I am not so wise as to know what wisdom is, and pretending only calls up its opposite, folly. A couple of years ago I was crossing one of the floating bridges that spans Lake Washington, here near Seattle. You can see the bridge in the image below. I was driving east — in...
Let’s imagine a “storyboard;” you know, a series of images that are like a comic strip or a plan for a movie. Except this storyboard represents a series of important moments in your life, learning, and leadership work. What pictures would be there as the major turning points of your own story? And where,...
Over the years I’ve worked with many leaders who say they want to improve their skills and develop as people. Yet, I’ve often watched them struggle when creating, and especially implementing any list of behavioral action steps. Personal change, it seems, suddenly becomes reduced to a set of chores. We all know about habit,...
When I was a teenager and thinking about my future my father would tell me, “what is important in life is making a contribution to society.” He never defined exactly what he meant but he didn’t have to. His tone called up all those he believed were not making such a contribution: the selfish...
