Keeping Remote Teams Engaged

WHEN the path ahead is clear, leadership feels easier. You can plan, predict, and rally your team around certainty. But real leadership shows up when the road disappears. In uncertain times, leadership doesn’t collapse from lack of effort. It collapses because leaders mistake activity for clarity. In doing so, they lose momentum when it matters most. When the next move isn’t obvious, when conditions change faster than plans can adapt, leaders make their mark — not by guessing, not by waiting, but by having clear priorities, guiding principles, and a shared purpose strong enough to move through uncertainty. Forward leading involves the kind of thinking that turns obstac…

Here is a selection of Posts from April 2025 that you will want to check out: The Opportunity Behind Every Closed Door via @TheDaily_Coach How Embracing A Low Point In Life Can Help You Grow Stronger by @LaRaeQuy A Few Short Stories by @morganhousel 3 Reasons To Challenge Outdated Assumptions by @JosephLalonde The 3 Daily Habits That Separate Champions from Everyone Else by @BrianKDodd The Top 3 Mistakes Leaders Make During Bad Days by @WScottCochrane There may be a book inside you. Should it stay there? by @wallybock Which Kind of Leader Are You? Reactors, Adapters, or Disruptors by @gavin_adams Canadian Nationalism No Longer an Oxymoron by @jamesstrock Canada is demo…

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in May 2025 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. Another Way: Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last by Dave Whorton with Bo Burlingham Dave Whorton went on a journey to find a better way to build companies, a way focused on long-term stability and steady growth, funded through profitability; a way in which leaders were committed to a purpose beyond personal wealth generation, to putting their people first, and to setting up their companies to endure. He calls these companies "Evergreen." Another Way combines Whorton's inspiring story with hi…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee on prisons of our own making: “When we are in a downward emotional spiral, feeling confused, unhappy, or ill at ease, we often end up playing and replaying mental ‘tapes’ that actually accentuate our negative emotions and feelings of hopelessness. When we are feeling down over a long period of time, this self-talk centers on messages that undermine us and, in turn, our power to change bad situations (‘It’s not my fault’ ‘My life will never be really happy’) or messages that weaken our sense of …

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Sébastien Page on focusing on what makes us better: “Traditional goals focus on outcomes, while mastery goals focus on process. Both are effective. It’s important to set goals for process improvements. Don’t overemphasize outcomes over process. If you don’t examine your process and the quality of your decisions, in other words, if you only focus on outcomes, you may think you’re an absolute genius. As a leader, recognize that attaining your goal does not necessarily mean you’ve made good decisions along the way.” Source: The P…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Nick Bare on intentionality: “Lack of intentionality leads to a repetition of what is easiest.” Source: Go One More: Find the Clarity to Make Intentional, Life-Changing Choices II. Will Guidara on a point of view: “If you try to be all things to all people, it’s proof that you don’t have a point of view—and if you want to make an impact, you need to have a point of view.” Source: Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect * * * Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading …

HOW do people learn? Simply put, when the reality does not meet the expectation. When we make mistakes. When we fail. And when we learn from those mistakes, we learn not only the correct way to go, but we gain a deeper understanding of the issue and thus are able to more easily apply it to similar situations. In other words, if we try to solve the problem before we are told how to do it, we learn better. Manu Kapur wrote Productive Failure with this in mind. “The idea of Productive Failure is to be proactive; that is, if failure is so powerful for learning, then we should not wait for it to happen. We should intentionally design for it for deep learning.” Kapur began h…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Dan Thurmon on testing yourself: “When uncertainty and randomness strike, whether the immediate perception is threatening or exciting, you don’t take it personally. You simply see it as a new factor to incorporate into your life. This is not about the challenge coming at you. It’s about the challenge coming from you. It’s not what’s testing you, but how you are choosing to test yourself.” Source: Positive Chaos: Transform Crisis into Clarity and Advantage II. Dean Williams on helping people face challenges: “The first chal…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Rich Diviney on the notion of peak performance: “Repetitive peak performance is unrealistic because performance is often conditional. It typically requires a predictable and familiar environment. Repetitive peak performance is unrealistic because uncertainty is life’s foundational state. True success in life and business hinges instead on optimal performance, which means delivering your “best” in the moment, whatever your best looks like in that moment. However, sometimes your best is about persevering, moving forward step-by-…

Here is a selection of Posts from May 2025 that you will want to check out: Disagree with the direction? Don’t just sit there – here’s what to do instead by @suzimcalpine John F Kennedy and the Art of Becoming by @jamesstrock The Importance of Leading in Small Places by @PhilCooke Memorial Day | Gratitude, Humility, Resolve by @JamesStrock National Pride, International Precarity. 3 Signs It’s Time to Recharge Your Leadership Battery by @WScottCochrane Turning Adversity Into Advantage: The Championship Mindset by @AlanSteinJr Writing a Book? You May Need Professional Help by @wallybock What Comes Next Isn’t a Product. It’s a Provocation. by Nicholas Negroponte History t…

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in June 2025 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. The Systems Leader: Mastering the Cross-Pressures That Make or Break Today's Companies by Robert E. Siegel A groundbreaking blueprint for mastering “cross-pressures” in a rapidly changing world, teaching leaders to execute and innovate, think locally and globally, and project ambition and statesmanship alike—from a Stanford Business School lecturer and consultant to some of the biggest and most innovative CEOs. Part of the problem is that these challenges, while acutely felt, are rarely articulated in…

Here is a selection of Posts from July 2025 that you will want to check out: 4 Lessons on Selecting the Right Leader for Your Organization from Guardiola and Silva by @BrianKDodd King's Legacy Continues to Serve by @jamesstrock Our Founders' Humanity Renders Their Example Compelling The Power of Self-Reflection: Transform Your Life from Within via @lifehackorg Leon Ho What is The Foundation of Achievement? 3 Leadership Lessons from Ichiro Suzuki’s Hall of Fame Speech by @BrianKDodd BREAK THE PLATEAU: How High Performers Raise Their Game When the Spark Fades by @AlanSteinJr Don’t Let Five Bad Minutes Steal Your Day by @TheDaily_Coach Our ability to pause, reframe, and …

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter on cultivating a mental focus: “As Al continues to advance and become more integrated into our working lives, it’s likely to further exacerbate the challenges posed by our already-distracted and data-filled environment. This new reality needs—no, demands—a proactive stance. Leaders who want to be successful today and tomorrow must commit to a more rigorous practice of cultivating inner stillness. They need to develop a deliberate, meaningful approach to managing the inner game of leadershi…

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in August 2025 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. Scaling Innovation: How Smart Companies Architect Profitable Growth by Madhavan Ramanujam and Eddie Hartman The brutal truth: most startups and scale-ups don't fail because of bad products. They fail because they never figure out how to grow fast―and profitably. Some chase market share at all costs, burning cash on customers who won't pay enough to sustain the business. Others over-monetize too soon, pushing away the customers they need to reach scale. Still others obsess over customer loyalty, miss…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Hermann Hesse on things we all can do: “To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do.” Source: If the War Goes on: Reflections on War and Politics II. Henry Ford on the importance of giving value before you ask for valu…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Timothy Gallwey on learning to change behavior: “By the word ‘learning’ I do not mean the collection of information, but the realization of something which actually changes one’s behavior—either external behavior, such as a tennis stroke, or internal behavior, such as a pattern of thought.” Source: The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance II. Developer Nicoll Hunt on the first step: “The first step of any project is to grossly underestimate its complexity and difficulty.” Source: N…

WE experience a tsunami of chaos in our environment, creating cross-pressures to achieve what appear to be contradictory goals at the same time. The solution is what Robert E. Siegel calls Systems Leadership. “Leaders face pressure to do opposing things at the same time, which can make them feel like no matter what they do or how well they do it, they are getting it all wrong.” The Systems Leader by Robert Siegel is based on systems thinking as made accessible in Peter Senge’s classic book The Fifth Discipline. In it, he “emphasized the interplay of actions and reactions between components of any kind of system, and the importance of studying those relationships holistic…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Richard Daft on reflection: “Reflection is also a choice: that of thoughtful wisdom over instant reaction. The idea of reflection is to find deeper understanding of cause-and-effect relationships, because organizational problems often are more complex than they look. Things move so fast that often you may not know what you really think or feel about an issue. Reflection makes your mind proactive rather than reactive.” Source: The Executive and the Elephant: A Leader's Guide for Achieving Inner Excellence II. Antony Bell on h…

NIDO QUBEIN began serving as Highpoint University’s president in 2005. As he toured the school in January of that year, it was not a school that he would even send his own children to. He was about to change that. He has led the university through an extraordinary transformation during his two decades and counting in office, including: Undergraduate and graduate enrollment has increased from 1,500 in 2005 to a record 6,335 students last fall, with the addition of 12 academic schools. This has been supported with a jump in the number of faculty members from 108 to more than 500. The Campus itself has also grown significantly with the construction of 128 new or renovated …

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Luc de Brabandere on changing twice: “If you want to change, you have to change twice. You not only need to change the reality of your situation, you also need to change perception of this reality.” Source: The Forgotten Half of Change: Achieving Greater Creativity through Changes in Perception II. Nido Qubein on bureaucracy: “There is a tendency in any organization for it to become self-serving. The larger the organization grows and the older it is, the stronger this tendency expresses itself and becomes this kind of iner…

Here is a selection of Posts from August 2025 that you will want to check out: Feeling Blindsided? Try These Six Leadership Shifts by @TerriKlass Becoming Unoffendable by @KevinPaulScott The Best Teams in the World All Have These 3 Traits by @AlanSteinJr 3 Reasons Small Wins Crush Big Goals by Craig Groeschel Not All Feedback is Created Equal by @wallybock Why working in an office still matters via @FastCompany by Jim Misener How curiosity rewires your brain for change by @neuranne Anne-Laure Le Cunff 20 Ways to Get Mentally Tough by @JonGordon11 The Secret to Creative Fire? Gather the Fuel Before You Strike the Match by@wallybock The Breakthrough Question by @JeffHend…

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in September 2025 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret Power of Groups by Colin M. Fisher Why are groups so hard? From boring work meetings to dysfunctional families to warring nations, group dynamics shape every aspect of our lives. How can we avoid the common pitfalls of living and working together and get the most from our groups? The solution isn’t to change individuals—it’s to understand the world from a collective perspective. In The Collective Edge, Colin Fisher, one of the world’s foremost experts on…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Hemant Taneja on radical collaboration: “Lobbing ‘disruptive’ innovations like random hand grenades into such large, established, and important sectors usually only changes things on the fringes. Those who work on the inside, who have spent their lives in their professions, get the sense that outsiders are invading and telling them they are outmoded or worthless, so they understandably push back. They might outright reject the innovation—or lobby to get policymakers to regulate the innovation away. Systemic transformation gets…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Colin Fisher on group dynamics: “Being a member of a group changes how people see reality. Two groups can see the same event but believe wildly different things about it. Groups are a lens through which members view what is true. When a situation is new and uncertain, norms emerge quickly and most people fall in line rather than sticking up for their own (weakly held) points of view. In fact, many people adopt group norms so quickly, they don’t even realize they changed their own views.” Source: The Collective Edge: Unlocking …

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Jeffrey Hull and Margaret Moore on humility and performance: “Humble leaders, and their organizations, may not perform better than those led by leaders who are not humble. However, the performance and well-being of the workforce is better when led by humble leaders. A tentative conclusion is that leaders who lead with humility it for others’ benefit, not for the sake of their own performance.” Source: The Science of Leadership: Nine Ways to Expand Your Impact II. British essayist and novelist Pico Iyer on stepping back: “I…