How To Be A Leadership Development Rock Star

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Spoiler Alert: We’re all going to die.

Not today (hopefully). But sometime. And when that time comes, many of us—many leaders—will have retired from our work.

Which begs the question: Where will the next generation of leaders come from?

As a person who speaks about, writes about, and researches leadership, I’m being asked that question more and more. As the Baby Boomers retire, they’re concerned about the future of their companies (not to mention their own legacies).

And so they ask me, “Where can ...

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How To Conquer The Vicious Cycle Of Impostor Syndrome

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I’m going to let you in on a secret.

But before I do, I need to give you some facts:

  • Fact One: I’ve won 29 Emmy Awards for my work in television.
  • Fact Two: I led my team to more than 100 Emmy Awards of their own.
  • Fact Three: Virtually everyone who knows me is sick of hearing about Facts One and Two.

Now, keeping these facts (well…Facts One and Two) in mind, here’s the secret:

I had no idea what I was doing.

At least, in ...

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Why You Need To Stretch Yourself As A Leader

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I’m currently learning a new piece on the piano (Bumble Boogie by Jack Fina). It’s a challenge for me because, 1) it requires a fair amount of technique, 2) it’s fast, and 3) I’m not very good at the piano.

Don’t get me wrong—I’ll get it down! After a month and a half of working on it, I’m actually pretty close to performance level. But at this point, it’s still slightly beyond my current abilities.

That’s a phrase I want you to ...

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Are You Making This Hidden Leadership Mistake?

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My piano is being tuned as I’m writing this. Don’t get me wrong…it didn’t sound out of tune. But it’s a valuable instrument, and I care about it. So I get it tuned twice a year, without fail. Now, I have this friend who I’ll call “George” (although his real name is Alan). “George” also has a nice piano. Mine’s a Steinway, his is a Baldwin. “George,” however, only gets his piano tuned when he thinks it sounds out of ...

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This Simple Question Can Help You Conquer Your Pressure

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Have you ever felt overwhelmed when you’re under pressure?

I know—stupid question, right? Of course you’ve felt overwhelmed under pressure! The two kind of go hand in hand. That’s because when you’re in the middle of a high-pressure situation, it can sometimes be difficult to determine where the pressure’s coming from; it can seem like it’s coming from all around—from everywhere.

And, in fact, the pressure is often coming from multiple sources. You may, simultaneously, be under pressure from ...

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Can You Handle The Pressure Of The First Time?

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Have you ever felt pressure to produce, even when you know you’ve got what it takes?

I was just talking with a friend of mine—Bruce—who is also, like me, an amateur musician. Don’t get me wrong—we’ve both played professionally in the past. But now we each have full-time careers outside of music, although we still play with bands whenever we get the chance.

Bruce was telling me about a time a few years ago when he was visiting a friend of his, ...

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How Socrates Can Make You A Better Leader

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Remember Socrates? Greek fella, lived a long time ago, had a drinking problem (specifically with hemlock)? He also invented this thing called the Socratic Method. (Although, for the record, he didn’t call it that; it was his fan club, much later.)

Anyway, the Socratic Method is, very basically, a technique of asking a series of questions—the answers to which lead, inevitably, to the conclusion the questioner was aiming for in the first place. [Note to philosophy and classics majors: Yes, I ...

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The Winning Mindset For Creative Solutions Under Pressure

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For fifteen years, part of my job was to come up with creative ideas—every week, under extreme time pressure, with roughly a million people watching.

I was good at it.

Really good.

But I didn’t start out being good at coming up with creative ideas under pressure. I had to learn.

In my case, creative ideas were necessary because I was the Executive Producer of a hit comedy TV show. In your case, creative ideas are necessary because the outcome of your situation may ...

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Are Your Policies Killing Your Opportunities?

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Back when I was in high school (or it might have been shortly after; I don’t really remember, and it doesn’t really matter), I got a part-time job at the Don Randall Music Store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was on my very first day that Mr. Randall—in a move that seemed almost like magic to me—taught me a great lesson.

It was the end of the day, and we had just closed the store and locked the glass front doors. There ...

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Why Believing Your Own Hype Will Make You Choke Under Pressure

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The stories are legendary.

  • Abraham Lincoln loses his run for the Senate…twice. And goes on to become our greatest president.
  • A young Robert De Niro gets passed over for the role of a lifetime as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. And goes on to become one of the greatest actors of his era.
  • Steve Jobs, in 1985, gets booted out of the company he founded…Apple. He returns in 1997. And goes on to rebuild what will become the first $1 trillion public US ...
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