Latest Articles

Leading from a Distance

My leadership style depends on regular contact with my people.I rely on face to face meetings to gauge reactions to our plan, evaluate execution, and make needed adjustments. Since my team has always been geographically disbursed, I try to pack a lot of “face time” into the limited opportunities we’ve had to meet in person or via video conference. The good news about this experience is that I’ve…

Leading through misinformation, disinformation, and information overload

How effective you are as a leader will oftentimes depend on how effective you are as a communicator. At no time has this been more true or important than during the current COVID-19 challenge. As we wrote in part three of our upcoming book Joint Force Leadership: How SEALs and Fighter Pilots Lead to Success, communication is one of the three essential linchpins of effective leadership. The…

Just Send Them an Email

“Just send them an email.” We can’t count how many times we’ve heard how sending an email will magically solve a problem. Sometimes it does. Most of the time it does not. Why? Because simply sending an email is not the same thing as communication. We think of communication this way. Sending a message is only the starting point. Was the message received? Was it understood in the manner in which…

Trust is Earned

We hear it all the time. “Trust me.” “Trust in the process.” “We need to trust in our partners.” But in fact, trust is really a one-way street. We can ask people to trust us, we can make an effort to be trustworthy, but in the end trust is earned. We cannot make people trust us because it is theirs to give and not ours to take, so how do we earn trust? Start by showing you trust others through…

Focus Takes Effort

Cell phone. Social media. Travel. Email. Family. Netflix. Text messages. Friends. How on earth can I stay on task with everything going on in my life? Great question. So many things compete for our attention, yet deep down we know that reaching our goals is a matter to focus. Indeed, to effectively lead our private and business lives we must do the right thing at the right time. Focus is a key…