Leadership

If we've learned anything over the last fourteen months, it’s this: Not much is really stable in our world. Our health can improve or decline, with or without the coronavirus. Our savings and investments can go up or down, or go away. Even the most secure, bolted-down belief will feel a tremor every now and then. I'm often asked, “Ken, what has been your biggest test throughout these fourteen months?" It's hard to single out a specific, unique event or moment. What often appears to be a single, solitary moment rarely happens in isolation. Even in those cases that appear to be standalone events, you will often find there are things building up to it and the aftermath that follows. So, I believe the biggest test I've faced -- and I'm not alone -- is not one single test but the stacking of multiple tests over a compressed period of…

It happened to me. From the moment I came home from the hospital as a newborn baby until I left for college, I slept in the same bedroom. It was my room. Baseball cards, a few books, and other "valuables" were spread across my dresser. A Nerf hoop was clipped to the back of my door. The same two posters hung on my closet all throughout high school - John McEnroe and Peter Frampton. Then I left for college in the fall of 1987, and when I returned for Christmas break, it was different. Technically, it was still my bedroom because dad had left my bed in there. The posters were still there. But he had moved in a desk with an office chair, a filing cabinet and a phone, and a television. He had converted my bedroom into a home office. I had mixed feelings about it. While I…

Passing along a good read ... ********************* In Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, Sebastian Junger argues that modern society robs us of the solidarity we need to thrive. Unfortunately, he writes, “The beauty and the tragedy of the modern world is that it eliminates many situations that require people to demonstrate commitment to the collective good.” As life becomes safer, it is easier for us to live detached lives. We can meet all of our needs in relative isolation, which prevents us from building a strong connection to a common purpose. In our normal day to day, we rarely need to show courage, turn to our communities for help, or make sacrifices for the sake of others. Read the whole article: https://fs.blog/2020/06/crisis/ ********************* Professor at Warner University masters in business administration (mba) presenter at the WFX National Conference former president, Church Planters of the Rockies helped start 2 for-profit tech…

I've been in and around executive-level leadership for nearly thirty years. This includes my own experience as a senior leader as well as having the privilege of knowing college presidents, founders of technology start-ups, and CEO's of companies traded on the NYSE. Many of the best leaders I've ever known are far from famous. They include school teachers, volunteer board members, and retired nurses. But as I've reflected on what made each of them effective leaders, I've noticed they all share a few common characteristics. For simplicity, I'm referring to them as the 4C's of effective senior leadership. These aren't strategies. They are characteristics -- common values and actions that first shape the person, then their leadership. What do these effective senior leaders have in common? They are ... Credible. We might buy a used car from a shifty salesman (and need to shower afterwards), but we wouldn't follow them…