[March 21, 2019] I began this series on “good habits” several years ago out of a desire to give simple advice to up-and-coming leaders.1 Picking good daily habits for leaders is easy because there are many to choose from. Today, I’ll be focusing on the usefulness of beginning your day with a hardy greeting. “One of the most… Read More »
[March 1, 2018] One of the first things that I learned from my military instructors on how to be a leader was to keep things simple. That’s not exactly what they said, it was keep it simple, stupid which is usually said in its acronym form KISS; oddly enough, originally a design application of the U.S. Navy in… Read More »
[June 22, 2017] Effective leaders make a habit out of those things that work; that sustain them in times when things are tough. Leaders, therefore, must use their skills at persuasion to enforce standards of excellence. The only way to do this is to be approachable where people are not afraid to come to you and voice their… Read More »
[April 21, 2017] Here at theLeaderMaker.com I like to encourage habits that make leaders effective. In that context, I’ve found whenever a leader asks good questions, good things happen. Indeed, this is a significant fact that cannot be overlooked by those who fill the role of leader. There is, however, some confusion I will clear up. Two key… Read More »
[December 12, 2016] Many books, articles, news stories, and such have written about bad bosses and all of us have spoken to one another about the poor leadership we’ve experienced. And I’ve written about the topic before (see links here, here, and here). Oftentimes leaders present a common picture of those traits of bad junior leaders who are… Read More »
[August 5, 2015] My maternal grandmother was fond of giving her grandchildren sage advice. One particular time when a group of us cousins were playing with fireworks and had set the grass on fire, she said to us “okay, spit it out, who started this, and whoever did it can expect a butt whoopin’.” She put fear into… Read More »
[April 10, 2014] In the U.S. Army we are fond of saying the “maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters.” This is a play on words that harks to the effective killing range of a weapon system. I learned this the hard way when, on my first day as a platoon leader, several of my unit’s… Read More »
[July 25, 2014] A small group of friends and I had our first taste of college life after graduating from high school. We were all engineer majors and figured that since we knew nothing about their trigonometry courses we would take one our first summer. The teacher was smart and dedicated but his accent made us struggle to… Read More »
[June 09, 2014] Effective leadership means the leader should be regularly identifying and eliminating their bad habits; those that affect their leadership. Bad habits make it much more difficult to be successful leaders. Mountains of self-help articles and books are written, seminars given, and academic courses taken on how to eliminate bad habits.1 Leaders, of course, are subject… Read More »
[July 21, 2025] Happiness is fleeting and unpredictable. If you want happiness, drink alcohol and abuse drugs (that’s a bit of sarcasm). The lesson is don’t pursue happiness. Drug use works, at least in the short term, and it’s cheap and instantaneous. Of course, alcohol and many drugs destroy the lives of perhaps five to ten percent of… Read More »