Posts with the ‘Courage’ tag
I agreed to talk to the boss. Three of my peers approached me about a sales campaign that they thought missed the mark. It was our boss’s idea, but it wasn’t a good one. Over time, I became the person my peers came to when someone needed to confront our boss. I accepted that role […]
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point.” –C.S. Lewis Wow. Opening this post with this quote from C. S. Lewis just heightened my level of attention to a subject that has been watered down through over use and misunderstanding through the years. How do […]
“What leadership book have you ever read that states, ‘A leader does what is right unless it will cost him personally.’” There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. It was not the empathetic answer Stan was looking for. The question: “What can I do? She’s my boss.”
Cowardice and courage are obvious before and during battle. In 1991, I witnessed another 1st Lieutenant back out of mission that I later volunteered for as a result of his cowardice. In another part of the battlefield, I had a friend dismount from his tank and walk his platoon through a minefield while under enemy […]
Facing us is the River of Fear, made deep and wide by our hesitations, timidity, doubts, and paralysis. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities…because it is the quality which guarantees all others. – Winston Churchill Other than the words in this paragraph, this entire blog is taken directly from the introduction to […]
All leaders would love to have a low maintenance team (LMT). A LMT allows a leader to focus on the big things and avoid the day to day hassles that could and should be handled at lower levels. When a leader does that, the leader and the team are more engaged and burnout and turnover […]
Adversity builds character. I find that the people I admire have not always had things easy. Somewhere, at sometime in their past, these people overcame circumstances in their lives that changed them. They walk with a limp. Through my 15 years of interviewing, hiring and training people I discovered that finding people who walk with […]
When I relocated to Texas after 5 years managing in Buffalo, NY, I took over a team where one of the representatives had gone through initial training with me. Lori and I had known each other for 10 years. Two months into being her boss, Lori asked me point blank, “What is your problem? This […]
The litmus test for good leadership is character. Rarely do I read history, watch the news or read the paper and learn about a leader who failed because of incompetence. The most common reason a leader fails is a shortfall in character. What happens in the months, days, or minutes that lead to a fatefully […]
When I relocated to Texas after 5 years managing in Buffalo, NY, I took over a team where one of the representatives had gone through initial training with me. Lori and I had known each other for 10 years. Two months into being her boss, Lori asked me point blank, “What is your problem? This […]
