Had a Bad Day? Really?

“Let’s be real for just a second. You have to be a lover of innocence, to be a warrior…” Those words were from Taya Kyle, wife of the late Chris Kyle. Known most notably by the story of his life embodied by the book and movie, American Sniper. Today, February 2nd, 2020, we want to…

Rollercoasters: I love them. Stepping off the new Jurassic World VelociCoaster recently, I felt strong, invigorated, as if I’d “conquered” something bigger than me, and eager to go again. Boarding an emotional roller coaster is an entirely different thing. We’re not necessarily wired, willing or braced for psychological whiplash. Stepping away from an emotional rollercoaster, we typically feel confused, undermined, destabilized, beaten up, and eager to mentally and/or physically quit. Great leaders are strong in Emotional Leadership. People follow them because they want to, not because they feel trapped. What kind of ride are you engineering?

Sun Tzu once said, “If you know your enemy and you know yourself, you will never be beaten.” During one point earlier in my leadership career, I crashed and burned and found myself at US Army Ranger school as one of the creative “growth opportunities” to humble me.  While there, I had an incident where…

When asked about my involvement in Task Force Pineapple, a citizen-liaison network which successfully evacuated more than 800 Americans and Afghan allies during a one-week period between the fall of the Afghan government and military and the “official” exit of U.S. troops, I tell them this …