RJ and I talk about the early success of LEAD Palestine, the organization he began to teach leadership to youths that most of the world abandoned in Palestine. Where their environment made it natural to respond with hopelessness and what comes from it—desperation to the point of aspiring to blow oneself up—RJ is bringing social and emotional development to create hope themselves. They happen to have been born into a[…] Keep reading →

Who doesn’t have a dream car? If you can afford it, especially if you’ve aspired to it your whole life, isn’t owning and driving your dream car one of the great joys and well-earned accomplishments in life? What if you found something better? What if what you liked better was not having the car? Does the idea of getting rid of one of your highest value sound crazy? That’s the[…] Keep reading →

Joshua Spodek Joshua Spodek is author of Leadership Step by Step and host of the Leadership and the Environment podcast. An adjunct professor at NYU and leadership coach and workshop leader for Columbia Business School, Joshua currently lives in New York City. What is your morning routine? To the untrained eye my morning routine (and all my other routines) seems to take away what it actually gives me: freedom. But[…] Keep reading →

Morning Routines and Success You show me a successful person and I’ll show you one with daily habits. MyMorningRoutine.com brings today’s successful people’s habits. You show me a successful person and I’ll show you one with structured daily habits. The more successful, the more self-imposed, challenging, relevant, and active his or her habits. Even bad-boy athletes, apparently self-indulgent rock stars, and counter-cultural artists have habits. Rather, the long-term successful ones do. The[…] Keep reading →

I rarely drink coffee—about a cup per decade, maybe. Partly I don’t drink it because I see how dependent people get on it, and how much they spend. Partly because the caffeine affects me so much. I drink it to stay awake only when I consider the reasons I was up late and had to get up early worthy. Otherwise I don’t drink it since I don’t want to reward[…] Keep reading →

Freedom comes from needing less more than having more, in my experience. How little do you need? Can you decrease your needs? I wrote a friend, in response to something he said about needs: I’m sensitive to the word need, since I consider neediness one of the least attractive qualities people can have, so as much as I value sidchas, instead of saying you need to do the thing daily,[…] Keep reading →

My post the other day on LinkedIn, “Google Revealed Donald Trump’s Favorite Words,” began In leadership, words matter. Leaders care about the people they lead and results, which often means caring about others’ interests ahead of their own, even when they disagree. Leaders know others will always have some different values. The challenge is to lead without getting mired in conflict. The most effective leaders influence the people they disagree with most. Consider Nelson Mandela negotiating[…] Keep reading →