Every leader is a lifelong learner. Every leader is a teacher at some point in time.   With a passionate belief of the two statements mentioned above I regularly attend workshops, seminars and classes from a diverse group of teachers.  This spring I have had the joy of sitting in on a class taught by a new found friend.  Dr. Sam Certo is a member of the faculty at Rollins College, and is the Steinmetz Professor of Management in Rollins’ graduate school of business.  Out of the experien

While in graduate school I had the honor of studying under Dr. David Seamands, the author of the best- selling book, “Healing for Damaged Emotions”. It was Dr. Seamands belief that “Neurotic Perfectionism” was the biggest ailment affecting high performing individuals. While taking his course I could breathe a sigh of relief knowing that nobody ever accused me of being a perfectionist. Recently I felt vindicated when I read a study performed by Martha Rivera Pesquera and Abdul Ali regardi

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting in a room with a group of CEO’s from Central Florida. Dr. Sam Certo, the head of the MBA program for Rollins College, was leading a conversation around the idea of “wisdom” in business practices. My curiosity prompted a question regarding the patience required to think long-term in a fast paced business environment. Initially, it appeared that Dr. Certo was only mildly intrigued by the question because he seemed distracted by a need to find a pen fro

There is a direct correlation between the health of an organization and the quality of the questions the leaders ask.  Some great questions are industry specific, or unique to the set of circumstances.  However, there are some great questions leaders should have at their disposal.  Below is a list of questions I have collected over time that open up conversations and advance healthier discourse.   What do you really want? How does this new information impact what we are doing currently?

Words have power. We learned the phrase as a child, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Not a true principle. Words have power to create, power to build up, power to deflate an ego. Words can encourage or discourage, direct rightly or misdirect destructively. It has been said of anyone selling products, services and self: If you say the right words, in the right way, at the right time, every sale will be yours. I don’t know personally if this is true, since