Jim Collins is one of my favorite authors on business and leadership.  I've been reviewing my notes from a talk he gave at the 2012 Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit.  He was sharing principles based on his book, "Great by Choice." This line from my notes jumped out at me: "The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change but is chronic inconsistency." For the most part, few of us wake up and decide to be mediocre.  It's not a typical life aspiration -- or shouldn't be! But when we allow chronic inconsistency to creep into our lives, our routines, our families, our work environment -- we are allowing ourselves to become mediocre.  Everyone may miss a deadline here or there.  We all make mistakes and occasionally exercise poor judgment.  Welcome to the human race. Mediocre people, however, are chronically inconsistent.  They are known by spurts and bursts.  What…

One of the books I'm currently working my way through is Henry Cloud's "Boundaries for Leaders."  It's taking the boundaries concept that he wrote on years ago and applying it to a business context. When it comes to the type of culture (or environment) that your business or organization has, Cloud is pretty clear.  I'll paraphrase: Your culture is the reality of what you create and what you allow. In other words, actions and inactions both have consequences. You create a culture when you clarify expectations and set goals.  You create a culture when you reaffirm good decisions and reward positive outcomes.  A vivid, well-articulated vision is creating a path forward. You're also creating a culture by what you allow to happen.  If you set an expectation but never follow-through when it isn't met, you're allowing an environment of irresponsibility.  If you allow sloppiness or tardiness or other similar behaviors,…

A few days, I was having a conversation with our youngest daughter about her volleyball team.  She had signed up to play for her school and was assigned to a team.  She wasn't too happy; she didn't think they were all that good. Not knowing if that were true or not -- and not wanting to argue -- I simply asked her this question: "What are you going to do to make them better?"  To which I added, "That's what leaders do." It's true.  Leaders exist to help other people improve. A leader looks at a situation and asks, "What can I do to make this better?" A whiner looks at the same difficult situation and complains, "Why do I have to deal with this?" A blamer looks at the same problem and says, "Whose fault is this?" A person in denial wonders, "What is everyone so upset about?" I…

We know that in order to qualify as a leader you must have at least one person following you.  Or, as John Maxwell says, if you think you are leading and no one is behind you -- you're just taking a walk. That being said, every good, effective leader has also been a good, effective follower.  In fact, I'm not sure you can learn to lead without first learning how to follow. Before Jesus deployed his apostles to shake up the world, he first invited them to follow him.  Then he spent three years with them, allowing them to shadow him around.  They learned to lead by learning to follow. I'm often asked, "How can I become a better leader?"  Yes, you can read more (and you should).  Yes, you can attend great seminars and watch TED talks (and you should).  But one of the most effective ways to become…