And while you should keep an eye on your financial assets, money is not your most important asset. Your mind is.
As John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
And while you should keep an eye on your financial assets, money is not your most important asset. Your mind is.
As John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
As our work and personal lives are increasingly intertwined, a little vulnerability and a willingness to be real goes a LONG WAY—especially if you’re a leader.
Development should start way before you think a young leader is ready.
This is the lesson I learned most from that first leader. He invested in my development way before I knew what I was doing. And if I could go back in my leadership roles and change one thing: I would do a better job investing in young leaders before they were ready.
After all, hundreds of concerns divide up your time and attention (Sales, P & L, HR, building maintenance, long-term strategy, an upcoming meeting . . .) in a way that is hard for others to understand.
That’s why you must find a community of other leaders to make the journey with.
A leader worth following does it differently.
They learn from Tom Rath, the bishop, and Jean Valjean. They seek to make others’ lives better in the midst of the overwhelm, knowing that it will lead to their fulfillment and happiness.
A leader worth following possesses the willingness to do self-reflection. Self-reflection involves uninterrupted time to evaluate past decisions and ponder future directions. In decades past, this time of reflection naturally occurred while sitting idly at a stop light or waiting to pick up your kid or board your flight.
Because of all the demands on a leader’s time, it is commonplace to bounce between tasks, conversations, meetings, and messages. Leaving one feeling unfulfilled and unproductive. To accomplish what only you can do, you need FROZEN PIPE FOCUS.
And one thing it will never replace is the value of human intelligence. It will never authentically laugh or smile. It will never express true kindness. It will never be genuinely trustworthy.
