Articles/Blog
Why is it so hard for leaders to practice self-care?
And it’s not just leaders. Many corporate high performers struggle to care for themselves well – myself included at times. My healthy habits – restful sleep, good nutrition, diligent hydration – are sporadic at best, and my exercise routine is not routine at all. I also find that I am often a very shallow breather…
Leading Self-directed Teams
The topic of self-directed teams surfaced in a recent conversation with a few leaders around the dynamics of decision-making and authority on teams. One leader asked, “How do you lead a self-directed team?” – a brilliant question with a complicated set of answers. I didn’t want to rely solely on my leadership experiences, despite having…
High Performance Incompetence
I recently had the opportunity to receive some high-performance driver training from an expert at a local club track. During our discussion and practice laps, I realized that although I have been driving for over 25 years, there is an entire world of nuanced expertise of which I am completely ignorant. I am currently, it…
Six Conversations
It is said that every story is based on one of six plots; some writers think of them as the six archetypes of literature, while some see them as the building blocks from which to build more complex plots and stories. While I’m not a writer, I’ve noticed a parallel in my leadership coaching of…
The Wonders of W’s
As many of you know, I like to play around with both letters and numbers to come up with catchy and easy ways to remember essential productivity hacks. Inspired by Craig Van Epps recent blog post on P’s in a Pod, I’d like to introduce to you the Wonders of W’s. The first W is…
Leadership Integrity
During a group learning meeting as part of our 6-week-long Performance Experiment / 42-Day Challenge program, a participant shared appreciation for the vast amount of content and materials we offer at Emergent. He then suggested that a subject area which we may not be covering enough is leadership integrity. His intent wasn’t to expose a…
Five Tips for Living Half-heartedly
WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS HUMOR AND ADVOCACY OF AN APPROACH WHICH, IF ADHERED TO, WILL LEAD YOU RIGHT BACK TO THE PLACE YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN. Silence honest perspective. When faced with the choice to either share or solicit honest perspectives, keep quiet. This will ensure that you don’t fully form your concept of anything…
Ps in a Pod
One of the outputs of our Emergent Leader class is the participants share what they’ve learned in a creative way. We are happy to share the following from one of our participants. Thank you Craig Van Epps from Haylor, Freyer & Coon for your thoughtful insights. Focus on the POSITIVE PREPARE for success PRIORITIZE with…
What if I was wrong?
And what if I still am? Actually, it really doesn’t matter; the question was prompted by the realization that my views today are totally different than they were when I graduated from college over 40 years ago. In fact, my beliefs today are different than they were even a few years ago. But one thing…
Every Generation Works Toward Progress
Every generation works toward progress that following generations eventually view as normal – just look at the telephone. My grandparents had party lines. My parents had cordless phones. And we now use phones that fit in our back pockets. That cell phone technology began a century ago, if not more. Progress builds on the past,…