Category Archive for : ‘Leadership’

I recently was introduced to this short but very powerful three-minute video that literally can change your life, and your organization’s culture. Of course, changing your company’s or nonprofit’s culture is a bit more challenging than just watching this video, but the premise and lessons taught in here are transformational.

Please take a three-minute time-out and watch.

So…where are you? Or where are you, most of the time?

And who decides where you are? Exactly!!! As the great philosopher, Kim Becker says often, “Life is about choices.”

I was facilitating a session with a

I’m a big fan of “Welcome to Wrexham” a phenomenally popular show about a football team (soccer for you Americans) located in Wales. Recently it struck me how this club has the three essential elements for a dynamic, healthy culture and in huge proportions.

(Bonus piece at the end – it’s worth it!)

Ryan Reynolds (of Deadpool and many of other great movies) and Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) bought the Wrexham club during COVID. The show chronicles the clubs unbelievable love affair with football, and how after decades of

I have a client whose top leadership is very aware that they have employees that are “culture killers.” They’re not everywhere, and it’s not everyone, but there are enough people in the organization who are toxic that it’s having enormous negative implications.

On the upside, the leadership is also fully embracing a new process to assess and enhance the culture. They’re also not naïve that this is just some “project” or “motivational program” that can be accomplished overnight. This is a process that will take several years of consistent work with

by Brian Becker

I’m beginning a new series of posts about culture. Why? Because the more experiences I have as a consultant and executive coach, I realize that everything is affected by culture.

Peter Drucker, organizational guru for over 30 years was right when he said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how on-target your goals are or how much you want to succeed. If the culture is weak or dysfunctional, it will negatively affect everything!

Culture is the intangible made up by myriad forces that are

(Updated from June 2018 Blog)

This Father’s Day I’m choosing to remember, learn, and even benefit from the relationship between my dad and I…the good, the bad, and even the ugly.

I have wonderful memories and lessons learned from Harold Henry Becker, now sainted for eight years. Dad was the most honest man I’ve ever met, faithful and supportive of my mother for over 59 years, a hard worker, intensely loyal to friends, generous with his time and money, possessed a simple and deep faith in God, and he was present at

I recently had the privilege of presenting at a conference in Phoenix with my long-time friend, Dr. Don Christian, President of Concordia University Texas, about ways to strength your board of directors. Don is one of the most successful nonprofit leaders I know, and he has achieved much of his board success through a combination of deep relationship building and solid policy-based governance.

Much of my consulting success comes from helping boards develop a series of best practices that, when applied, can only strengthen the board…towards better collective leadership and

This week’s blog has excerpts from a September 29 New York Times article “The Crisis of Men and Boys” by David Brooks. The article captures many of the serious negative implications of fatherless that Tender Lions: Building the Vital Relationship Between Father and Son reveals, and we’ve been writing and speaking about for the last three years.  

The basic premise of the article is that boys and men are struggling in America, and it’s not getting better. Here is some of the data:

Girls outperform boys academically in virtually every subject and at

After blogging regularly for 2½ years I took an eight month break from writing. It wasn’t that I wasn’t working or caring about the father son relationship or leadership. It’s that I was feeling depleted. Depleted from the “white noise” caused by isolation due to COVID, intense political and racial ugliness, and trying to make sense (and grieving) the lack of empathy and love for our fellow neighbors.

I don’t have it figured out by any stretch of the imagination, but I know that writing helps me process my thoughts and

I recently was asked to do a one-hour workshop for the Siebert Foundation in Milwaukee for their many nonprofit and ministry partners across southeast Wisconsin. If you’re a nonprofit leader or board member here is a comprehensive overview (is that an oxymoron) of the key elements to build the effectiveness of your board.

Feel free to contact me if you have any follow up questions regarding this important content.

#nonprofitleadership #strongboards #boarddevelopment #leadership #leadershipeffectiveness #leadersedge

Recently I watched a riveting interview with Dr. Deborah Birx, former leader of the White House Coronavirus Response Taskforce. Her way of dealing with a very challenging situation illustrated a number of vital leadership qualities, particularly needed in our fragile and fractured country today. To see the interview just click here. By the way, the lessons listed below are my observations not hers.

Calm Under Pressure – When you’re in the public eye and how you appear is just as important as what you do, stay calm. Keep emotions, anger, disbelief,