12 Steps to Becoming a Stronger Leader

Step 1: Be Present 

Description: In this blog, we discuss the importance of being present and using strategies to stay mindful. We also cover the messages we send to others by committing to be present when interacting with them and the dangers of living too far in the past or the future.

Don’t Miss the Moment

Have you ever finished a page in a book only to realize that you have no idea what you just read? Or driven to work, without...

The Side-Effect of the "Hustle Culture" That No One Wants to Talk About

This is part of Wesley’s 12 Steps to Leadership series. Each of these principals should be implemented, each week, to further develop impact and influence.

Description: In this blog, Wesley discusses the importance of REST for conscientious leaders. The dangers of deferring your rest are more severe than you might think, and the mystic and alluring dangers (and leadership quotes’ propaganda) that the...

This is part of Wesley’s 12 Steps to Leadership series. Each of these principals should be implemented, each week, to further develop impact and influence.

Description: In this blog, Wesley discusses how you can hack the well-known 10,000-hour rule to expedite your mastery and success. The secret is to find a great mentor and be intentional about your accountability and growth.

Master Skills Faster

10,000 hours…We’ve all heard that this is about the amount of time you have...

A Story of Challenge and Change (5 min read)

This is a short story about a situation I was in recently, that I know will be helpful for many of you out there. Here goes:

A Founder Looking for Answers

I was in a meeting recently with a business owner who was, let's just say, out of ideas for trying to get his team to work together.

He told me about how he’s got some great employees - both the long-term, loyal, productive kind and the newer, highly-talented, more formally educated kind -...

Tasks vs People

As a leader, you are probably highly skilled at accomplishing important tasks. It’s likely that this skill has played a large part in your career development and has helped you accomplish many of your goals.

There is one problem though, to put it in the words of a popular television series: “all magic comes at a price.”

The price of being a well-oiled task completion machine is that one might focus on the results too much. It may be the case that your...

Maybe you’ve had an experience like this:

You make plans with someone to meet up for coffee. You have set the time and place in advance and you spoke with the other person and they confirmed the meeting. So you show up to the coffeehouse and wait, but they don’t seem to be coming.

So you send a text. No response. They are really late now, so you call them. Nothing. You wait maybe 30 or 40 minutes, enjoy your latte, and try calling one more time. Still, you are not able to reach...

Welcome to the new year! Each season has valleys and mountain and lessons to be learned from each situation. We hit some goals and we miss some goals, but we keep walking the path.

It’s time to start thinking about your resolutions and goals differently. A year ago, I talked about the concept of SMART goals and how they feel tired!

My point is the same: The scientific data on SMART goal success shows that, as a strategy for maximizing your impact, they just can’t get...

The “Us” vs “Them” Mindset

Commercial entertainment is great at creating a clear discernible line between protagonist and antagonist. The person (or group) you want to “win” and the other side you want to “lose.” In fact, our expectations of entertainment are so predictable that Hollywood movie producers know they have less than 10 minutes to get their audience invested in a story before their attention drops off dramatically.

The lines...

Identifying you High-Potentials 

One of the most common, and the most costly, mistakes that I see managers of young employees making, is failing to properly identify their high-potentials. Maybe you are even asking yourself “what is a high-potential anyway?” Well, pardon the blockquote, but this definition from the Harvard Business Review is a great place to start:

“High potentials consistently and significantly outperform their peer groups in a variety of...

Chances are if you are a leader on the verge of burnout, it’s because you aren’t getting the best from your team and you find that it is easier to “pick up the slack” than to get everyone to hold their own. You operate at an “11” (out of 10), while your team operates at their own “leisurely” pace.

Maybe you are even starting to resent them for what you perceive as a lack of effort...

So how can you put yourself in a position to lead your team...