Relevant Leadership Blog

Advice From Joseph Stalin That Will Change The Way You Communicate

I am currently working with Colorado Children’s Hospital to help them develop their story for their upcoming fundraising campaign. Colorado Children’s is a remarkable facility that has moved to the number three ranked children’s hospital in the nation and the goal for this upcoming campaign is over $300 Million dollars.   How impactful would your communication need to be to raise over $300 million?   As we had our initial meeting I shared a thought that is helping to shape the story and it is an important concept for every communicator to understand if they want to be effective and

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How Leaders Create Strong Cultures

I believe the old adage “leadership drives business” isn’t true anymore. In today’s world – “Culture Drives Business” – The Leaders role then is to help create and maintain culture.   Last week my friend Cindy told me a story that every leader who wants to create a strong culture needs to understand.   Several years ago Cindy and her kids noticed that two Robins had built a nest in one of their trees. As they paid attention to the Robin’s activity they realized that there were eggs in the nest. Those eggs soon hatched four baby birds.   Cindy

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How To Deal With Negative Feedback

We all get negative feedback at times. That can come by way of a performance review, a critic, a well-meaning friend, rejection or through other tough experiences. We will all face mistakes, failures, and naysayers at some point – so the question isn’t how do we avoid negative feedback, but rather what do we do with it.   What drove me to write this post was the survey feedback I received from a particular conference. I was the closing keynote speaker on leadership to a state association of CPAs. I felt the conference went well and the feedback was positive

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Take Excuses Off The Table

I had a chance to interview Don Yaeger. Don is an 8 Time NY Times Bestselling Author and a leadership expert. In this video clip Don shares a trait of great achievers – They hate to lose more than they love to win. – Watch this quick but powerful idea: Click on the image  of Don to watch the video –    

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Have You Ever Been Caught in The Act?

Have You Ever Been Caught in The Act? I just read that headline out loud and I think it could easily be misconstrued.  Trust me – this post is completely appropriate. So caught in the act of what? We all talk a lot. We preach and teach and explain how things should be done and the question is if you were caught in the act – would you be practicing what you preach? If I walked into your life unexpected at any given time – would I find you walking your talk? The reason I bring this up is because

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How To Deal With Trials In LIfe

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton One of the inevitabilities of life is that we will all face trials and hardships along the way. These trials could be physical, emotional, spiritual or financial. It could be the loss of a child, going through a divorce, losing your home to forclosure, being diagnosed with a disease, or battling depression. Betrayal, loneliness, or loss can also be sources of these trials. Each of us has and will face trials in our lives and, while they test us for

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Leaders Have To Create Buy-in

Last night I watched a video by Brendon Burchard titled – What Leaders Really Do. Brendon made a point that stuck out to me because it is a leadership fundamental that is very seldom discussed. He said, “I think the most important leadership lesson in the world is that people support what they create.” One of the things that every leader and influencer needs to learn is how to facilitate the co-creation process. When people are heard they will be helpful. When people are involved they are empowered. When people collaborate they will be committed. I recently watched this process

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If They Say You Can’t – Prove Them Wrong!

Have you ever had naysayers in your life? People who told you that you can’t? You aren’t good enough? You should give up? etc… If you have – I think your job is to prove them wrong! In eighth grade I decided that I was shifting gears. I was done playing soccer (which had been my life for the previous 9 years) and I was going to play basketball. I had played before but I wasn’t on any of the high school developmental teams or in the leagues and tournaments that the real players were in – so if I

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Are You A Reader?

Are You A Reader?   We are remodeling our house and I had to move my library from my home office to my regular office and so I snapped a picture. I have read every book you see there (nearly 1000 books!) in the last 10 years.   I have read hundreds of books on Leadership, Communication, Positive Thinking, Sales, Parenting, Marketing, Social Media, & Presentation Skills. In this pile are also biographies of amazing people, religious books and history books.   A recent study showed that most people have only read one book cover to cover since high school.

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