TAKING STOCK Doesn't everything die at last and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life (Mary Oliver, 1990)? What's worthy of your life's blood? What must you be about with your life, else you are living someone else's life? What would be lost in the world if you were to deny your purpose? What would you do

Second, are you developing effective leadership at all levels within your organization? As a leader, you cannot scale the organization until you understand and perform your role in developing other leaders. When you enter the executive ranks, your job is to develop other leaders—and, to minimize your losses, know when someone cannot be developed in

“What would you do if you could?

emerges. We are not sure what happens for Jonah in the belly of the whale, but we suggest that he is riding both currents of transformation.

Steve Jobs said: “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. This practice requires that we trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my

When we ask leaders what they would do differently looking back, their most frequent response is, “I would have made changes in my executive team more quickly.” They hang on to low-ratio return, high-cost leaders for too long, and it costs them dearly. Having the right people on the leadership team and investing in the Leadership Agenda is high

For organizational change to be real, we need to personally transform ourselves. Much “resistance to change” is actually the struggle people have with reorganizing their identity. People need help and support to make this inner journey. They seldom get it in change efforts. We know that personal transformation precedes organizational transformation

The Biblical Hero's Journey story of Jonah describes this process precisely. Jonah is walking along the beach one day, minding his own business, when God says to him: “Jonah, I want you to be a leader. I want you to be my prophet to Nineveh.” Jonah tries to deflect the request: “My calendar is a little busy. Sorry, can't make it.” God repeats the

First, are you increasing the creative capacity and capability of your organization at a multiple? If you are not getting a 5-to-1 ratio of return on your time spent, your ROI is sub-par. Far too many leaders spend their time on the areas that provide a 1-to-1 return (or worse).