This morning, my one-year old insisted that he eat his breakfast, by himself and that he didn’t need my help.

It was messy.

It took longer.

His technique was poor.

But….

He had fun.

He ate it all.

He accomplished more than I thought he could.

I told him afterwards that he taught me an important leadership lesson. That I need to be intentional about giving leadership away to those who might be a little green, but are itching for an opportunity to be entrusted with an opportunity to lead.

Well done, Wyatt! Only 884 more Saturdays until you take on the world for yourself. You’re one step closer to being prepared to lead on your own.

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1. Just do it – Set your timer for 60 minutes. Write. At the end of 60 minutes press publish.

2. Just do it – Put it in your schedule. One hour, every six weeks, for the next year. If something comes up, adjust your schedule. Having it in your schedule will force you to do it instead of hoping in happens.

3. Just do it – Open a Mailchimp account and set your timer for another 60 minutes and figure it out.

I am constantly amazed at the people and organizations that want me to faithfully send money each month but can’t take the time at least once in six weeks to send me a photo or three paragraphs describing the impact they are having. For many the improvement is being intentional about starting and just doing it.

Your impact is big. We want to celebrate with you.

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Asking

March 26, 2013

I think what separates the men from the boys, the winners from the losers, is often the courage to simply ask. “Would you give $5000 to help eliminate poverty in our city tonight?” “Will you find 4 couples to join you at our fundraising dinner?” “Could you do it for 10% less if I paid [...]

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Differentiation

February 19, 2013

In business, companies compete based on value propositions and product differentiation (sometimes hard features, sometimes soft). Customers use these promises and features to distinguish, amongst a sea of choice, and in an environment where it can be hard to tell any difference between product A and product B. In leadership, the playing field is level. [...]

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Forwarding

February 14, 2013

If it is worth my time to forward you an email, then it follows that it is worth my time to write one sentence to you on why I am forwarding you the email. Tweet

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Are Google Hangouts the next big thing?

February 11, 2013

I’m betting yes. After having an extended meeting with a colleague on Google Hangout last week, I’m convinced. Launching a Google Hangout is integrated right inside my Inbox. No additional software to install. One click and I’m video conferencing. Screensharing is built in. Off course, this is a standard feature on any conferencing system, but [...]

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2 tools I use to control the fire hose

February 6, 2013

Here’s two tools that I use to curate the intensity of the fire hose of information coming at me from Twitter. 1. Twitter lists – I’ve created a few lists of influential people that I really care about and I can count on to highlight value-added content. 2. Feedera – Daily I get a summary [...]

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3 ways I use IFTTT

December 20, 2012

IFTTT can be a great tool for automating and streamlining parts of your everyday life. Here’s three ways that I use it. (Of course, you can also check out my public recipes). 1. Automating workflows I don’t want to waste my time pushing papers and want to put the power of computers to helping me with [...]

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Culture is created by what leaders pay attention to

November 30, 2012

A colleague recently posited, “Organizational culture is created by what leaders pay attention to.” This phrase really stuck with me. It’s one of those sentences that is totally obvious and yet profound at the same time. It made me think about whether my first question to another leader is about their performance or their heart. [...]

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Getting out of bed

November 26, 2012

What got you out of bed this morning? Was it the challenge or raising donations for your cause? The lure of travel and expanding the footprint of your cause? The excitement of planning a conference about your cause? Or… Was it the divorced woman trying to rebuild her life who called her landlord to pay her rent [...]

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