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Leadership topic - J Geils Band

I take requests here also… and had one in the queue for literally months while I wandered through the fall and winter.  There was just not a good fit for the type of music that they played – straight-ahead party music.  One of their albums has one of my favorite titles – “Blow Your Face Out” … indicative of the music you can expect this week.  As we engage years of being locked down… why not Celebrate?  It is not something that we do enough of as leaders…

… Teams and leaders need to Celebrate success. But what is it, and how do we capture the difference between having it and pursuing it? With the soundtrack of one of the greatest Party Bands, J Geils, we will watch as they achieve it … and then lose it.  What can we learn?  Celebrate with some amazing party music – J Geils!!!

Celebrating by engaging

Celebrating by engaging

Mar 1, 2021 | , ,

As I headed west from Tyler, my destination was Dallas where I engaged in the fall of 1976 on my path to become an Electrical Engineer.  One thing about engineering was once you picked which type (EE, ME, IE, etc), your class schedule was mostly set.  To get through it all in 4 years, you had to take 18 hours a semester, and the classes were sequenced so your “planning” was mostly just filling in a few “electives” that were like ‘free spaces’ on the Bingo card.  And being a good student, I ripped into the classes, including an 8 am MWF Statics class – a tough ME class required for all engineering majors… 

managing Celebrating

managing Celebrating

Mar 2, 2021 | , ,

Realizing that no one was actually listening made me question why I was giving my nights and weekends to being a college radio DJ.  So after a few weeks, I stepped down, but what to do with my time?  A few guys on the floor were starting to play guitar in the evenings, and I managed to bring mine back after a weekend at home.  Politely, one of them that I was tutoring through Physics pulled me aside and suggested that I might want to switch over to Bass …. as I was actually never going to be good on guitar… honest feedback that many years later I still Celebrate… 

partners to Celebrate

partners to Celebrate

Mar 3, 2021 | , ,

Yes, that picture is Faye Dunaway, and no that is not Frank Zappa.  I always enjoy finding odd things to Celebrate about the artists, and try to tease just enough that if you really want to know more, you can.  And with today’s theme being “partner”, this seemed like a perfect place to slot in a story about one of the other major players in the band, and also a short story about partners that I still Celebrate from those days at SMU in the ’70s…

Celebrate or observe?

Celebrate or observe?

Mar 4, 2021 | , ,

Explaining my empower framework to people, they will often ask me ‘Which one is the most critical?’  And like picking your favorite child, it is a fool’s errand as it mostly depends on the situation you are in.  Pressed hard, it is a toss-up between today’s observe and tomorrow’s wonder.  The interesting paradox to Celebrate this week is that the songs were literally released on the same single in 1971 – this is the A-side, and tomorrow’s is the B-side.  Both were huge hits, but this was their first top 40 hit – cracking it at 39.  And both were on the album titled, The Morning After… which makes the story today even more poignant… 

wonder how to Celebrate?

wonder how to Celebrate?

Mar 5, 2021 | , ,

Parental Advisory – Explicit Content.  ;-)… so I have wanted to write this post since I started writing these – literally.  It is one of the greatest musicians, with the greatest names, and bundled into one of the best live bands ever… and there will be a lot of double and triple entendres and allusions that you will get, and some will probably miss… but whatever.  Here we go, and I am indebted to my friend for suggesting we talk about J Geils – as I now have an excuse… as with newspapers, those of you reading this on LinkedIn and FaceBook will have to wonder what happens under the fold… 

Celebration execution

Celebration execution

Mar 6, 2021 | , ,

Politics, or trying to not write about it, had a hand in starting these columns years ago.  After being active in High School, begrudgingly, I tried to stay out of it in college, but to no avail.  I was spotted by a junior in my sophomore year, and he wanted to groom a successor.  There was a Student Senate, and the Engineering School needed someone to be on it, and he suggested I ran – which I did and served for 3 of my 4 years.  He also wanted me to take over the Student Engineers Joint Council (SEJC), the student leadership group for the School, which I also did.  This was one reason I was standing in the middle of the road on a Friday night, missing a shoe, waiting for my girlfriend to pick me up… and likely be executed… 

Celebrating renewal

Celebrating renewal

Mar 7, 2021 | , ,

After the encouragement of my roommate, and after trying other ways of renewal that were less fulfilling, I found the group at our local church to be the major hub for activities and renewal. We would gather for meals occasionally during each week, and particularly on Sunday, with literally 12 guitar players, leading singing for maybe another 20-ish.  Friday nights were often go-kart racing or other fun activities, including one Halloween party that we are all glad there were no cell phone cameras for – no real bad activities, but some that, seen 45 years later, might be judged differently…