When I talk about my daily habits, people call me disciplined and act as if I have ability they don’t. Nobody looks at a bodybuilder and believes he or she was born that way. Nobody hears a musician playing and thinks he or she was born playing. They developed their skills by practicing. I practice too. Sometimes the practice involves hard things and things you don’t feel like doing but[…] Keep reading →

My Meaningful Connection exercise is one of my most popular and effective (they’re all effective) from corporate speaking, one-to-one coaching, teaching, my personal practice, and my book. Since I have non-native English speakers in nearly every audience, I’ve decided to ask some to translate the script into various languages. My leadership class this summer afforded my first two translations. If you can help with others, please let me know. I’d[…] Keep reading →

I’ll soon post my podcast interview with Jordan Harbinger, one of the world’s top podcasters. First I’m sharing this example of Jordan and how to learn to communicate authentically and genuinely—through practice and rehearsal. Think genuineness and authenticity matter in business? How about marriage? This recording features Jordan’s wife talking about how Jordan came off, when she knew he practiced, rehearsed, and taught others to. Practice and rehearsal work because[…] 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 →

Forbes’ columnist Tim Francis of the company Profit Factory covered me with a video interview, How Leadership by Authority Can be Counter-Productive, at the core of my leadership practice and what I teach. Leading through authority is beyond ineffective. It’s generally counterproductive. Watch the video for why. Actually, watch the video for more than why: watch to learn what to use instead of authority and how to develop the relevant[…] Keep reading →

My Inc. post today, “The 20/80 Rule, Leadership, and Integrity,” begins The 20/80 Rule, Leadership, and Integrity In a leader’s relationships, the 20/80 rule counts, not the 80/20 rule. Leadership means people watch you–not to what you want to say or do, or mean to, but what you actually say and do. Attention to detail counts. Not sometimes, but always. What Vince Lombardi said about winning applies to leadership: Leading is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You[…] Keep reading →

I recently guest hosted an online seminar for Park Howell‘s course in the Executive Masters of Sustainability Leadership program at ASU. The student reviews and reflections touched and inspired me. I can’t help sharing them. I described and performed one exercise from my Leadership Step by Step book and course. You can imagine that if these results come from one session, how much doing all the exercises in the book[…] Keep reading →

The other day I interviewed leadership speaker, author, and coach Dov Baron for my Leadership and the Environment podcast (not yet launched). He interviewed me for his podcast. Listen to our conversation (on iTunes) The interview was tremendous, with tears, laughter, insight, inspiration, dinner invitations and more. Sorry to make you wait for it, but I haven’t launched my podcast. I asked advice for direction for my podcast. He recommended three[…] Keep reading →

Each morning since November, from my alarm going off to my turning it off, I’ve gotten up, made my bed, and crossed the room to where my phone is. I wrote more about it in “How I Wake Up in Under 1 Minute Every Day: After decades of morning sloth, for 7 months I’ve gotten out of bed in under 60 seconds each day and loved it” (EDIT: and ““Olympic[…] Keep reading →