Leadership Lessons

Baboons and Impalas

Team Building, Valuing Others, Focusing on Results, Innovation, Dependability

Do we tend to focus on weaknesses instead of strengths? Do we see differences as barriers? Nature can be a unique matchmaker. Baboons and impalas may not seem to have much in common, or much to offer each other. But they are actually a perfect...

Two Friends and a Giant

Team Building, Valuing Others, Ego Management, Organizational Savvy

As soon as you are too tall to let a small one help you, you are doomed to extinction. The Sequoia Redwood trees stand tall and firm. For 3,000 years they have been growing. There is no organism larger on the earth than these massive trees we call...

Chains and Ribbons

Change Management, Team Building, Valuing Others, Innovation, Inspiring Commitment

If we chain our people down, they become conditioned to the restraint, and soon, their innovation dies In the early part of the last century, circuses and zoos employed a certain method of training for elephants. They were bound by a heavy chain...

How to Train Your Killer Whale

Coaching, Team Building, Valuing Others, Focusing on Results, Inspiring Commitment

People, like whales, won't perform for you until you have a relationship of mutual trust. The trainer stands on the nose of the killer whale and, together, they dive to the bottom of the pool. The trainer moves her feet to the whale’s flippers and...

Writing the Right Code

Team Building, Valuing Others, Inspiring Commitment, Decision Making, Personal Integrity

When you demonstrate your commitment to your team, they reward you with increased effort, trust, and support. We tend to think of the challenges of managing a virtual or nontraditional work team as a rather recent phenomenon made possible by...

The No-Brain Stage

Personal Development, Coaching, Team Building, Valuing Others

If your people are acting like two-year-olds, ask yourself which of their "two-year-old needs" you may have neglected. Two year-old children. Ugh! That’s the age the pediatricians refer to as the no-brain stage. The terrible twos, right? At this...

True Blue Herons

Personal Development, Coaching, Team Building, Valuing Others

When there is commitment and a willingness to work, success is far more likely. The water spreads out in vast streams and inlets as it covers the swamplands. Many call this place home. Hidden on an island in the middle of the swamp are two birds...

One Sniff at a Time

Coaching, Team Building, Valuing Others, Inspiring Commitment, Effective Communication

Select and train your people with care, and then care about your people. Deliberately the dog moves forward sniffing through the bags, stopping and going as his nose directs. With trained care he stops before a large suitcase and sits next to it....

Dirty Laundry

Listening, Valuing Others, Problem Solving, Ego Management

Rarely do we see things through a "clean window." We all have blind spots. Several years ago, there was an elderly couple who would sit together each morning for breakfast. The woman often looked out her kitchen window and saw her neighbor’s...

The Power of Yes

Valuing Others, Time Management, Decision Making, Personal Integrity

When facing a life balance challenge, or even a crisis, try something new. The entertainment industry is a demanding, fickle, and high-risk environment. Founded on intense creativity and marketing, it can be one of the most unlikely environments...