Leaders: Seek This Outcome From Your Followers This simple feedback from your followers can tell you how you’re leading. By Joshua SpodekAuthor, ‘Leadership Step by Step’ @spodek One of the great joys and tragedies of leadership is that you’ll never exactly how well you led. An engineer can take a test. A baseball player can look at his stats. But leaders have no objective measure. Is that frustrating? It gets more[…] Keep reading →

In an under two-week period this month, pursuing influential people for the podcast, I met one of the greatest golfers of all time, Gary Player, at the Gary Player Invitational golf tournament, along with a few other greats and Michael Douglas. I actually shared a golf cart with Mr. Player. I’m scheduled to record a conversation with him for the podcast. I met a Nobel Peace Prize winner and invited[…] Keep reading →

Social and cultural change generally start from outside government. Government nearly always follows. Mandela, Gandhi, King, Havel, etc all started outside government. I’d love to see government lead, but the most effective thing for anyone who wants government to act to do is to act first. That’s why I’m acting, or one of the reasons. When enough other people see the pattern, they’ll stop blaming others’ inaction and act themselves.[…] Keep reading →

There’s a phrase out there “Punch a Nazi.” Here’s a video of someone acting on it. What effect do you think it has on people who agree with the guy being punched? Or people attracted by his message? I submit that punching the guy overall advanced his cause. When I search “Punch a Nazi,” the top results ask the ethics and morality of doing it. Talk about ethics, morality, and[…] Keep reading →

Last summer, I taught a short version of my course to working professionals. I taught it through NYU, though it’s one of the courses I teach independently online and in corporations. It overlaps with my coaching for leadership clients. Here are the student reviews—as usual, all of them, no cherry-picking. Summer 2018 leadership student reviews Yes, I would definitely recommend this course to others. The combination of interactive classes, consistent[…] Keep reading →

Which is more common–an athlete becoming a business or political leader, or a political figure becoming an athlete? Many athletes and become leaders in business, politics, and so on, but the reverse never happens. The difference tells me that sports teaches skills useful and essential to leadership. I had the honor of interviewing Marquis Flowers of the New England Patriots for the Leadership and the Environment podcast. His vulnerability and raw emotion revealed what athletes learn through their struggles,[…] Keep reading →

Neither the environment nor your life responds to your awareness. They respond to your behavior. People who speak the truth say, “I’m telling the truth.” People who lie say the same thing. People who are aware say they are aware. People who are unaware say the same thing too. Only we’re all unaware of what we’re unaware of. Saying we’re aware only reveals our ignorance of our unawareness. That’s pride.[…] Keep reading →

Handling Trigger Warnings, Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and Other Outrages Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s new book, The Coddling of the American Mind, takes on offense and outrage with calm resolve and effective insight Jonathan Haidt’s latest book, released today, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, coauthored by Greg Lukianoff, takes on one of the issues of our[…] Keep reading →

#1L1P Kevin Huhn contacted me because our spheres overlapped. We got to talking about acting on one’s values even when nobody is around—that is, integrity—which acting on your environmental values teaches. I shared with him my new initiative to promote picking up 1 piece of litter (or producing 1 less) per day and inviting 1 other person to join the initiative too. I shortened 1 litter 1 person to the[…] Keep reading →