Category: Idea Sharing Adventure Blog Posts
In 1972 six young guys from Chicago formed the American rock band Styx. Five years later they released their hugely successful album, The Grand Illusion. This first of four straight multi-platinum albums features the eponymous song, and its lyrics are legendary. Every time I listen to this epic rock ballad, two things happen: First, I…
READ ARTICLEOur thoughts drive behavior, and behavior drives performance. What we see determines what we do, and what we do determines what we get. Therefore, if we want something different in our lives, it must begin with new thoughts. Our thoughts matter. The noise of the modern world can feel overwhelming. Phones, laptops, tablets, television, news,…
READ ARTICLEThe following is an excerpt from my first book, Not for Sale: Finding Center in the Land of Crazy Horse: In 2010 I lost the consistent and comfortable use of my speaking voice. This hidden blessing forced me to reassess my management approach. I am not sure I would have done so otherwise. I might…
READ ARTICLEPeople ask me what Shared Leadership looks like at work and my answer is simple: humans looking out for other humans while we work. This 30 second video mentors beautiful coaching and models how humans at their best show up for each other. “Chin up, chest out. We all make mistakes.” We never have to be…
READ ARTICLE“My every thought was ambition—to be great.” —George Armstrong Custer What a sight it would have been to see the Indian encampment on the morning of June 25, 1876. It was a hot, hot day. Children were playing in the cool waters known to the Indians as the Greasy Grass River. A herd of ponies…
READ ARTICLEThe shelves at my home office hold some personally meaningful trophies and awards that have come my way through the years, yet none of them matter much to my two-year-old granddaughter. Sumner loves my office. As soon as her feet hit the floor, she heads for the black couch across from my desk where her…
READ ARTICLEMy time on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota has opened my eyes to the need for a new leadership model that honors everyone. Overreaching has consequences, and winning isn’t winning unless everyone’s winning. Take, for example, these Indigenous perspectives on America’s “winning of the West” during the last decades of the nineteenth…
READ ARTICLE“Freedom is not free.” —Colonel Walter Hitchcock On June 14, 2024, Vice Admiral Joseph Scott Mobley, US Navy, retired, passed away. Were it not for my amazing stepfather, Admiral Greg Johnson (USN, Ret.), I never would have known Mobley’s name. Just a few days after the vice admiral’s death, Greg sent me a summary of…
READ ARTICLEThe Business of Shared Leadership and Kevin Hancock are proud to announce that Kevin has officially joined the Board of Directors, along with three other Maine based leaders, at The Mitchell Institute. Kevin had this to say about his recent election to the board: I’m happy to have joined the BOD of the Mitchell Institute. The…
READ ARTICLE“It is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.” —Jim Collins I had a great day last week and spent a few minutes reflecting on why. The answer surprised me in its simplicity: I spent the entire…
READ ARTICLE“There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” —Carl Jung My oldest granddaughter is two years old, and she’s so much fun! She’s constantly on the go, in exploration mode, walking fast and investigating her world. In the process, she’s learning what she can do on her own, without help or support. This occasionally leads…
READ ARTICLE“You maintain hope for humanity as an infinite skeptic of gossip and slander. In all mankind’s desires for entertainment and exaggeration and sensationalism, when it comes to gossip, the individual always sounds worse than he really is. This is why adhering to gossip subtly affects the mental state of the listener—he goes on holding shady…
READ ARTICLE“To be accountable is to care for the well-being of the whole and act as if this well-being is in our hands and hearts to create.” —Peter Block There is nothing that happens at Hancock Lumber in the way of a problem that I can’t trace back to myself as the senior leader of the…
READ ARTICLE“Remember, there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” —Scott Adams I am amazed by how many times it happens. I am at table at a restaurant and the server arrives to greet us. “Hello, I’m Amy. I’ll be your server this evening. How…
READ ARTICLEAlison and I needed a tape measure. We were looking to measure a wall in the small bedroom of our Boston apartment, to see if it could accommodate a king-size bed. So off I went across the street to CVS, where I found one tape measure remaining in the home goods section. It measured only…
READ ARTICLE“You know, in 900 years of time and space, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important.” —The Doctor, A Christmas Carol For sixteen years I coached the eighth-grade girls’ basketball team at Lake Region Middle School in Naples, Maine. Across all of those seasons, every practice began the same way: As the girls came out…
READ ARTICLE“The problem in this world is to avoid a concentration of power—we must have a dispersion of power.” —Milton Friedman My last post was about the singular mission of public schools in America, which I believe should be instilling a deep sense of self-worth in every student. In that post I reported that the US…
READ ARTICLESometimes we get lost in complexity. The US Department of Education has a $68 billion annual budget from which it measures, sorts, records, studies, advocates for, and tracks public education in America. Yet ultimately, public education only needs a single mission, and it’s pretty much free to give and share—the pursuit of self-worth. This is…
READ ARTICLEI shared this message with all of our Hancock Lumber employees, and I wanted to share it with you as well. Thank you! Hello everyone! Tuesday, of course, is election day. Ahead of that day I want to share the following thoughts with you: I hope everyone in our company votes! It’s a right and…
READ ARTICLEIn October I had the opportunity to speak to and work with three amazing Maine organizations! At the beginning of the month I gave the keynote talk to over 560 Maine Health executives and team leaders at the Cross Insurance Arena. Two weeks later I did a one-day workshop and coaching program for the executive…
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