John P, Dave, and Mark B., For the first time since I turned “Reading for Leading” into a blog I have chosen to “moderate” it – in this case to remove your coments from my blogspace. I’m sure you expect that I don’t agree with your political views, but that’s not why I am turning you … Continued
My RFL this week entitled The Way of Toyota, Great Companies, and Mary Zatina generated some really interesting comments about Mary Zatina and about the theme of focusing on your people on the RFL blogsite. You can read them here. As usual, readers write some cool things. But RFL did not stay within its own … Continued
I offer this blog for people who are feeling a lot of anxiety, particularly students facing final exams. In about one page I’d like to share a story, a cognitive understanding, and a few simple prescriptions. If it helps you, great. If you think it might be of use to someone, particularly a college student, … Continued
Dear Friends, I wrote my first R2L blog on March 1, 2000! For most of those 22 years I have written every Sunday night. In the last 2 years, I’ve gotten erratic. And I have been radio-silent for the past couple of months. So, what’s up? Well, I have been thinking, reading and writing a … Continued
Back in 1989 I remember tenderly touching Jennifer’s swollen midsection and saying, “I think I’m going to hit the next person who says, ‘your life will never be the same.’” I knew having a child would change our lives forever – and I knew with a knowledge that would admittedly deepen over the years – … Continued
I published today a little combo piece. I teed it up with the power of a great quotation (“to be or not to be”), then with a Gandhi quote on the subtle yet highly efficient power of love. I suggest(ed) that if you have the paradoxically vulnerable strength to show your heart to those who … Continued
In my last post, I shared the inspiration and perspective I had received from reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning while I was in a period of suffering. Frankl gave me comfort. Then, when I shared both the suffering and the comfort, so many of you offered me further comfort, solidarity, and inspiration. I … Continued
warning: this one’s passionate, fact-based, but a bit long 🙁 Everyday Leadership definitionally asserts: everyone can lead. In our representative democracy, this is a tautology: citizens not kings are leaders. One of the complaints I hear a lot is that elected leaders are more like elected . . . followers, “with their finger in the … Continued
[I am going to write about Martin Luther King, Jr. next week.] My friend Berke’ Brown shared some psychological research that stuck with me. It showed how having multiple identities strengthens a person’s psychological resilience. So, for example, if one identities as an athlete, a lesbian and a humanitarian; and also identifies as a Detroiter, … Continued
I used to think of this 60-day lead-up to the election as Silly Season. Now it feels like Scary Season. In the coming series of Read2Lead blogs we will offer ideas and practices to lead through the fear. We need leaders – you, leading with your best self – now more than ever. Systems are … Continued