10 Signs U.S. Universities Are Sabotaging Themselves Moody’s downgraded higher education to “negative.” S&P agreed. Finances aren’t the problem. Leadership is. S&P predicted a bleak future for higher education last week. Last month Moody’s downgraded the sector to from “stable” to “negative.” Leaders know financial issues usually aren’t root problems but point to them. Here are 10 signs pointing to problems among American universities independent of finance, from most obvious leading to the broadest and most important. 10. The most[…] Keep reading →

For anyone who listened to Emily’s first conversation thought, “Oh, turning off a computer at night that’s not really that hard.” Having launched a book, it’s a very hard time. It’s extremely stressful. It’s not easy. She still did it. So you’ll hear, despite Emily’s defining environmental differently than I expected her experience was remarkably similar. I think if you’re listening to this in order to take on challenges yourself,[…] Keep reading →

Welcome to my second conversation with Judith Glaser. This conversation was more challenging for me because we never got to talking about what I consider the environment. I’m including it to give an alternative perspective, well, mainly because I enjoyed talking to Judith so much but most of all to learn others perspectives because there’s a view that I have but I don’t consider leadership to involve telling others what[…] Keep reading →

In episode three we hear how Tanner kept going, he kept going until he hit a challenge that took serious effort. In his case he moved past doing things on his own to influencing others and they are not under his control so it’s a whole new set of challenges in leading other people. I should also mention he gave his TEDx talk between Episode 2 and 3 and he shares[…] Keep reading →

Tanner clearly has just as much fun in the second conversation as he did the first one. And that’s the fun of the conversation but talking about what he did, he went beyond just modest size changes. If you hear he’s already getting into leading people right away. It’s about responsibility. It’s about people changing or not. I mean he does but not everyone does. You get to hear about his[…] Keep reading →

My series answering the New York Times’ Ethicist column with an active, leadership approach instead of an analytical, philosophical perspective continues with “We Sponsor Refugees. What to Do About Their Patriarchal Ways?” I am a member of a group that has sponsored a family of refugees from rural Syria. When the family arrived, group members signed up all four children — two boys and two girls — for soccer programs.[…] Keep reading →

Joshua: I really enjoyed interviewing Michael for this podcast. First of all, as a coach myself, his book The Coaching Habit has nearly 1000 reviews on Amazon. Basically five stars. It’s the standard in the field. He’s also a Rhodes Scholar but very approachable, very fun to talk to. He’s a senior partner at Box of Crayons, which teaches people how to manage better, how to lead and coach. You’ll[…] Keep reading →