Leaders Edge Blog

Stress is caused by uncertainty,
uncontrollable situations, and sustained volatility according a stress researcher
from Harvard University. The research I’ve read finds that the “big three”
elements that cause stress is when “family, finances and/or health” are
threatened. It appears that all of these elements are in the bullseye right
now, and it’s almost certainly going to get worse before it gets better.

Who could have imagined the lightning speed at which the
world has changed in just the last few days. In many parts of the world the
number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 is

This is definitely NOT April Fool’s Day advice in this document. If you’re concerned about if or how your nonprofit should approach its donors during the pandemic…this attachment has 20 links to excellent resources regarding this vital topic (i.e. – direct mail, major donors, campaigns, communication, etc,) Thanks to my client ALDE.ORG for providing this doc for its membership. Just click here to find the hotlinks to these resources…

The Art of War by Sun Tzu was written more than
2,500 years ago. His lessons are still employed by many leaders today. Some
historians believe that if the political and military leaders of the 20th
and 21st centuries had studied and applied Sun Tzu’s lessons that
Vietnam, the Korean War, the Bay of Pigs, and that World Wars I and II may have
been avoided. At the very least, these major conflicts would have had
significantly different outcomes, whereby millions of young lives would have
been saved.

What might the lessons be for coaches, political, business

This blog has some helpful information, and ends with one vitally important leadership lesson. For those who believe that everything that President Trump says is true, when he said finally said late this week that “the Conronavirus is serious”…believe him! Be it two months late, he finally responded to the Coronavirus pandemic appropriately.

Here’s what I believe to be helpful information. Earlier this week I heard Trump say these things in a press conference:

“Coronavirus is like the flu.” It is NOT like the flu. When the NBA, NHL, all of college sports,

This past Sunday much of the world was rocked when we learned that Kobe Bryant, arguably one of the best basketball players of all time, was killed along with his daughter and seven other people in a helicopter crash. My wife, daughter and son all have basketball “in their veins” having been serious basketball players in school. They each have their “Kobe stories.” If you watched much (or any) basketball in the last 20 years, you probably have a Kobe story, too.

This week the news media and personal conversations were

When I was in fourth grade I fell off my bike and took a really hard fall which left a gaping bloody wound on my left elbow. I was doing things that my parents definitely wouldn’t have approved of, so I hid the huge wound. Even though it was the middle of the summer I wore long-sleeved shirts so my make-shift bandages wouldn’t show. Then wound started to fester and smell.

Fortunately for me, my grandmother noticed it. I confessed to her what actually happened. She then uncovered the wound.

In the last few months both Jeff and I have encountered challenging
ethical dilemmas involving organizations and people that we really care about. What
follows are a few of the important lessons for Tender Lions to be aware
of, because it’s only a matter of time before you and/or your son are going to
encounter a challenging ethical situation. While you can’t anticipate
everything, it’s best to have your eyes wide open. Consider discussing these
seven observations based on our personal experiences:

When you “poke the bee hive” don’t expect the bees
to thank you. To the contrary,

Are you talking to yourself right now? Listen…whose voice is it? Your voice, your boss, coworkers, dad, the devil? Yes, we all have many voices, but the reality is that you can only listen to one at a time. But…you get to choose. So listening to the “right voice” is essential.

We all have internal speech that “beats up” on us from
time-to-time. For some of us, the “saboteur” can be brutal. Have you heard this
rattling around in your head, “He’s never going to listen to me right now, I
can’t lose that

In the bestseller, Leadership and Self-Deception the story is told of an upper level manager, “Tom”, who has an inability to see his own problem – self-deception. Self-deception caused a number of significant problems both for Tom and those he worked and lived with. Let’s take a look at this scenario:

Tom always saw others as the source of his problems.Tom had an overblown sense of his importance, always saw himself as the most committed, the most dedicated, and the smartest guy in the room.Tom actually, unknowingly, provoked others to resist

Last week I attended the Global Leadership Summit. 7,500 leaders from around the world learned from 14 outstanding speakers representing the best of corporate, nonprofit and religious circles. While the environment was positive and electric, many of the lessons taught came in the form of warnings for leaders who aren’t willing to do the hard work and have the difficult conversations that are essential in these challenging times. Those who avoid or abdicate the hard decisions are destined to fail. Here are the one dozen “warnings”:

The CEO or executive