People often ask me about resolving conflicts and how to handle them as a leader. This clip shows Eisenhower, played by Tom Selleck, handling a conflict two days before D-Day. It’s dramatized, but not so much that we can’t learn from it. Context Eisenhower and his team have been planning the Normandy invasion for months. They want to launch in the next couple days, but two major unknowns split to[…] Keep reading →

This clip wonderfully shows the effects of feeling understood about a passion—that is, a powerful emotion. You see how cathartic it feels for the person sharing the passion and how important it is for someone leading the person. Context: In a long interview, Dustin Hoffman is talking about the challenges of growing up under a stern father and how he escaped through movies, which evolved into acting. He starts to[…] Keep reading →

The more I teach and coach leadership and entrepreneurship, the more I see them as sets of behavioral skills anyone can learn. Behaving in certain ways results in people choosing to follow you. Behave otherwise and they won’t. There’s no magic to it. The question isn’t if you can behave like effective leaders do. The question is if you choose to learn and if you find effective learning technique. Your[…] Keep reading →

A friend and I spent the weekend camping. On Monday morning, we were late getting on the road. I was going to be late for a summer course and asked my friend to hurry. At some point, I noticed that we were traveling at 130 m.p.h. I did not say anything because I wanted to make it back to class. Shortly after, we were stopped for speeding. My friend thinks[…] Keep reading →