Short post today. I wanted to record something I wrote and liked while writing my book draft: Leadership isn’t about getting them to do what you want. It’s getting them to do what they want. I think the mainstream picture of leadership is the opposite. This view suggests learning more about the people you want to lead, putting their interests first, choosing your team appropriately to the task, and working[…] Keep reading →

My Inc.com article yesterday, “Breakthrough Science on Leadership and Why You Shouldn’t Read This Article” began Breakthrough Science on Leadership and Why You Shouldn’t Read This Article How great leaders who never learned leadership from science, books, or classes became great. As a leader, entrepreneur, and professor, I used to enjoy TED talks and learning about frontier science. Do you feel, watching them, like I felt: “This is forefront stuff. Since most people[…] Keep reading →

Reading isn’t doing. Watching videos isn’t doing. Learning about research isn’t doing. Only changing your behavior changes your behavior. What is your behavior while reading and watching? With regard to other people, it’s passive and non-interactive—the opposite of leadership, which is active and interactive. Watching videos about leadership is like watching videos about lifting weights or running. You don’t lose weight from watching others exercise, you don’t get strong from[…] Keep reading →

My Inc.com post, “Despite What Harvard Says, You Don’t Need a Crucible” begins Despite What Harvard Says, You Don’t Need a Crucible While some have become leaders by overcoming great challenges, don’t believe the myth that you need to. In September 2002, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas wrote in Harvard Business Review‘s, Crucibles of Leadership, In interviewing more than 40 top leaders in business and the public sector over the past three years, we were surprised[…] Keep reading →

For Vince Lombardi’s birthday, I wrote in Inc.com, “These two surprisingly touching Vince Lombardi quotes reveal the source of his winning leadership.” The piece begins These two surprisingly touching Vince Lombardi quotes reveal the source of his winning leadership For the great coach’s birthday, how to create winning traditions in your teams. I’m writing this article exhausted and sore because two days ago I started researching for this article. Having[…] Keep reading →

I got a few short clips from my presentation on entrepreneurship when I spoke at Princeton’s Elab recently. In this clip I describe how to use behaving entrepreneurially to get job offers. If you want similar experiences, take my entrepreneurship course. It develops you in small steps to work up to handling interactions like this. Even if you don’t, call valuable people. Err on the side of making things happen.

Listen to the podcast The Power of Experiential Learning with Joshua Spodek The Unmistakable Creative podcast just released its interviews of me. The interview covered leadership, entrepreneurship, education, and a bunch of my life and growth. Their lead quote from the interview: “No one who is learning to play a musical instrument, no one who wants to learn a musical instrument would ever take a class where they would lecture[…] Keep reading →

About few people in few fields can we say there is a before and after. Muhammad Ali is one of them, and beyond “just” boxing, but to sport in general, and free and open expression. Every athlete today lives in his shadow. Every war resister. Every public speaker. Every person who works for fairness. Nobody before him did anything like what he did. Compare athletes of today. Michael Phelps and[…] Keep reading →

I got a few short clips from my presentation on entrepreneurship when I spoke at Princeton’s Elab recently. Entrepreneurs are often so busy pitching their ideas, they miss opportunities to attract people to help them. They don’t realize their pitching is leading people to evaluate them, which tends to separate them. Here I talk about how to talk to people to Improve your project Feel vested in your success See[…] Keep reading →