Leadership Blog
Leadership Blog
Excerpts From the Next Level Leaders Club
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How Leaders Perform Under Pressure
Pressure is a familiar part of leadership. Important decisions, difficult conversations, major presentations, organizational changes, and unexpected crises can all place enormous demands on a leader. The higher the stakes, the greater the expectation to perform well,...
Why Did You Do This to Yourself?
I recently had the incredible opportunity to stand on the famous red TEDx circle and deliver a talk at TEDx Arkansas State University! Getting there was quite an experience. I had been warned that becoming a TEDx speaker would involve a lot of rejection, and those...
How to Challenge and Support Your People at the Same Time | Video
Help Your Leaders Give the Right Kind of Help
One of the hardest leadership skills is knowing what someone actually needs from you. Sometimes they need a decision. Sometimes they need coaching. Sometimes they need you to listen well enough to help them solve the problem themselves. That is exactly the kind of...
How Leaders Make Sure Their Help Is Actually Helpful
Leaders are often rewarded for being helpful. Someone brings a problem, and the natural instinct is to step in, offer advice, make a decision, or start fixing whatever appears to be wrong. Experience can make that instinct even stronger because experienced leaders...
I Mowed the Wrong Lawn. Twice.
Years ago, my friend John joined the military and was unexpectedly deployed overseas. He and his wife, Heather, had recently purchased a home; they had a newborn, and Heather suddenly had a lot to manage on her own. One Sunday at church, I asked Heather if there was...
Five Ways to Become a Likable Leader Within Five Minutes | Video
Measure How Your Leaders Handle Change
Change can reveal leadership strengths and opportunities. When teams go through growth, transition, promotion, restructuring, or a new season of responsibility, people experience their leaders more clearly. They notice communication, steadiness, follow through,...
How Leaders Guide People Through Good Change
Good change still changes things. Leaders often know how to respond when change comes from crisis. A major problem appears, pressure rises, and everyone understands that something needs to shift. Positive change can be harder to recognize because it often looks like...
Leaving a Piece of My Heart in Tennessee
Last weekend, Erica and I dropped Parker off at college in Tennessee. I knew the day was coming. We had talked about it, planned for it, packed for it, prayed over it, and watched it get closer on the calendar. I understood, in theory, that our oldest child was going...