Posts Tagged ‘Great Leaders’

How Little I Know

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

I have really enjoyed this year. It has not come with­out its tri­als and chal­lenges but the bless­ings have so out­weighed any of the dif­fi­cul­ties. There is just so much to be grate­ful for.

Now this may come as a sur­prise, but one of the things that I am most grate­ful for is a deeper aware­ness of just how lit­tle I know. If I leave it at this, many of you might be some­what con­cerned. After all, you invest time in this blog look­ing for insights — not the ram­blings of some­one who knows nothing.

But this aware­ness of how lit­tle I know has been really free­ing and excit­ing. The truth of the mat­ter is that I am most likely more than halfway through this jour­ney called life, and I still feel like so much of it is an experiment.

(more…)

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Leadership | 4 Comments »

Leadership Wisdom From a Beaver

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

I had just boarded my flight from Port­land to Dal­las to help con­duct a Build­ing Cham­pi­ons Exec­u­tive Retreat.

For those of you who travel often for busi­ness, you have your travel habits, depend­ing on your mood or work­load. Some­times you sit down, open the brief­case, put on the head phones, and get your work done. And then there are the times when get­ting to know your flight buddy can be the best part of your busi­ness trip.

Sit­ting next to me on this flight was Linus Rhode, Head Coach of the Ore­gon State Beavers women’s soc­cer team.

(more…)

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Leadership | 2 Comments »

A Good Name

Friday, June 24th, 2011

I just had break­fast with one of my clients, the CEO of a global tech­nol­ogy firm. For the past few years we have been work­ing on two pri­mary objec­tives: the fur­ther devel­op­ment of his lead­er­ship team, and his prepa­ra­tion for the next chap­ter of his pro­fes­sional life, as he will soon be retiring.

I am never sure who ben­e­fits more in my coach­ing rela­tion­ships: the client, or me. I have been so for­tu­nate to have coached some of the most amaz­ing peo­ple. I am con­tin­u­ally grow­ing and learn­ing from them as I coach them. I love what I get to do!

Some­thing that my client said this morn­ing really struck me. He told me that all he has ever wanted as a leader was to be known as a guy who did what he said he would do. As a mat­ter of fact, he said this became really clear for him as he wrote his epi­taph when cre­at­ing his first Life Plan with me a few years back.

(more…)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Leadership | 2 Comments »

How Big is Your Story?

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Last week my wife and I had the priv­i­lege of attend­ing the 90th birth­day party of Chick-fil-A founder, Truett Cathy. There were more than 1000 peo­ple in atten­dance at this cel­e­bra­tion of his life and legacy.

Most of you are prob­a­bly famil­iar with a part of Truett’s story. You may have read that his com­pany started in 1946 with one restau­rant. You might know that they have more than 1300 restau­rants, run by some of the most service-minded lead­ers in busi­ness today. You might be aware that he lives and leads accord­ing to his faith.

What you may not know is just how big his story is.

(more…)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Life Planning | 5 Comments »

How a Big Company Can Feel Small

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

For years, I had the priv­i­lege of coach­ing the CEO of a national mort­gage com­pany with 6000 employ­ees. He then went on to serve as the CEO of the national bank that owned that mort­gage com­pany, where he was respon­si­ble for lead­ing and serv­ing the 13,000 team mem­bers. And for the last year and a half, I’ve had the plea­sure of work­ing side by side with this past client, as he is now a CEO Men­tor and Exec­u­tive Coach here at Build­ing Champions.

His name is Jerry Baker.

Over the past 10 years or so, we have enjoyed coach­ing hun­dreds of those who served under Jerry’s lead­er­ship. These clients have ranged in roles from exec­u­tives to mid level man­agers, as well as many of the company’s sales force. What we have seen and heard is that almost every­one in this com­pany really knew and cared for Jerry. And most of them felt that Jerry knew and cared for them.

(more…)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Leadership | No Comments »