Choosing to be a World Champion at Life
Choosing to be a World Champion at Life Yesterday we hosted the first Surrender to Lead Summit. The conversation moved fast from aspiration to responsibility. Meredith Kessler’s keynote hit me hard. She talked about judgment under pressure, the kind where stakes are real, consequences creep in slowly, and ego hides as certainty. She made a choice most leaders never stop to make. She could have chased the title, but she chose purpose instead. She “chose to be a world champion at life rather than a world champion at Kona.” That clarity exposes a leadership problem: too many people push momentum without checking if it’s still serving the mission. Preorder Surrender to Lead for more stories...
PAST ISSUES
The Conversations Leaders Are Ready to Have
The Conversations Leaders Are Ready to Have Six days. That is how far we are from the Surrender to Lead Summit, and I keep coming back to where this...
My New Year’s Resolution Is to Answer a Bigger Call
My New Year’s Resolution Is to Answer a Bigger Call Last year, my New Year’s resolution was to raise the stakes. This year, something different is...
2026 Is the Year of Playing Offense
2026 Is the Year of Playing Offense Playing offense in 2026 requires a shift in how leaders think about momentum. It shows up in the belief systems...
Drive Results – With or Without Committees
Drive Results - With or Without Committees My newsletter on culture committees stirred up more reaction than anything I have written in months. Not...
My 2026 Predictions: Part Two
My 2026 Predictions: Part Two Two weeks ago I shared the first half of my 2026 predictions and today I am releasing the remaining five. These...
SHRM Is Forcing a Reckoning in HR
SHRM Is Forcing a Reckoning in HR The Business Insider “hit piece” last week reveals a lot… about the state of HR. What I saw was how uncomfortable...
Predictions For 2026
Predictions For 2026 2026 will not arrive quietly. The signals are already flashing and this year they begin to collide. What we predicted in 2025...
The Leadership Cost of ‘Needing to Know’
The Leadership Cost of ‘Needing to Know’ Last week we explored how uncertainty shifts leadership behavior. There is another response that often...
Leaders…Press Pause
Leaders...Press Pause This week, I have been reading Miracles of Love by Ram Dass while on vacation, and one idea keeps returning. He writes about...
The Death of the Culture Committee
The Death of the Culture Committee Culture committees came from a sincere place. They gave people a voice. They helped leaders show that listening...
A Culture for All Generations
Disrupting the way we think about generations to attract, engage, and retain all employees
There’s a real benefit in dismantling the perceptions behind Gen Z or X, or whatever the next trendy label is! Citing extensive academic research from her book, Unfairly Labeled, Jessica provides a refreshingly enlightening and data-driven perspective on how multi-generational organizations can strip away stereotypes and and biases that hinder performance and prevent progress toward a common purpose.
