Empowering Leadership and Music Articles
Each article uses our empower framework that we also use for our leadership coaching services.
I Like to Live the Love… renew… planting Seeds you will never see grow?
renew... planting Seeds you will never see grow?There is paint on the kitchen table...There is paint on the kitchen table, a book face down beside it, and 4 of us are heading out...
The Thrill Is Gone… execute at 4 in the morning?
execute at 4 in the morning?"Your job is to last more than a year""Well. You will be the 5th head of engineering in 4 years... and your job is to last more than a year. And you...
To Know You Is to Love You… wonder how Seeds are built?
wonder how Seeds are built?I paid 50 bucks for something I could have done myself..."We can't fix it." My Dad would never have said that sentence. Taking it in at all would...
Lucille… what do you observe?
When Seeds are burning... A vice president stopped at my door...The stereo in my office played louder than a reasonable person would. We were "off campus" ... because we were the...
Riding with the King… partner… before the Seeds show?
partner... before the Seeds show?... barely 5 feet tall with a burr haircut...Walking into debate class in the 10th grade, I am certain Mr. Shumate looked up and thought, here we...
Paying the Cost to Be the Boss… manage what Seeds cost?
manage what Seeds cost?My review came in the mail...I was 19, and I opened my performance review at the kitchen table because it arrived in the mail, in an envelope, like a phone...
Three O’Clock Blues… engage the Seeds someone planted in you?
engage the Seeds someone planted in you?2 men who could not have been less alike...I found out at his funeral... my grandfather... the youngest of 12 was a natural comedian....
Alive… who sings it back to renew you?
You have built that weekend for other people. The offsite, the team dinner, the session where everybody finally says the true thing. You planned it, you ran it, you watched it...
Yellow Ledbetter… can you execute your way back Alive?
Have you been executed?6 months. That is exactly how long I lasted as the VP of Global Engineering at a mid-sized imaging company. I was the 6th head of engineering they had gone...
I am mine… do you wonder who chose you Alive?
There is a version of that question sitting in your calendar. The note from HR lands, the one that says 10 years, and you read it twice. What you feel is not pride and it is not...
Just breathe… and observe what is still Alive
“Hey, thanks for making time to meet me this morning! How have you been?”He was a larger-than-life man, bounding across the coffee shop to join me. We had met at a...
Given to fly… which partner keeps you Alive?
What partner keeps you Alive?Both of our predecessors quit. Mine, in Product Management, and his, the VP of Engineering, left within a few months of each other, leaving a...
Nothing as it seems… can you manage Alive?
managing to stay Alive…“Semiconductor memory will never fly in space.” The PhD in our division said it in a meeting, flat, the way people say things they have already...
Unfinished enough to engage Alive?
How do you engage to stay Alive?Alive has a special meaning when you are the short kid… and the school Bully has you cornered in the locker room… the door behind him…Being a tech...
wondering Belonging … what actually lasts (Time)
… another late Thursday night in the lab. 8 weeks into debugging the new Space Shuttle display system we were designing… 6 weeks late. As before, I had a great partner - quiet -...
Belong as a real partner?
Belong as a real partner? Be a 15-year-old boy, in a suit at Kroger’s, buying Tampons on a Friday afternoon. Embarrassed… but there I was. I found my first real partner at 15. A...
How will you engage Belonging?
… as I looked in the right-side mirror to change lanes, it was vibrating… then it cracked… then blew off! Just like that, I could not see anything down the right side of the car...
What helps you renew to Begin Again?
It was December… the needle on my gas gauge had dropped below empty an hour back… at night… in a blinding wet snow… in a front-wheel-drive sports car,...
observe… what makes you Begin Again?
observe… Yep - that is a wrecked car in a LinkedIn post. I lived through it. Mostly. Now that I have your attention… who is the one person on your team you have...
How do you engage the “Find My Life” button?
… once again out in the garden, disaster struck. I was listening to a great program about the 100th anniversary of Tony Bennett’s birthday that is today… I...