Leadership and Main: A Blog on Leadership in Local Communities

Unconditional Service

James Albright 10.25.2021

Unconditional service is the mark of a great leader. According to Webster’s Dictionary the word unconditional is defined as, “not conditional or limited.” Therefore, the concept of unconditional service comes with no strings attached. Nothing is expected in return. Serving others who can do nothing at all for you in return is the ultimate form of unconditional service. A few weeks ago, I got to attend one of my favorite events of the year, the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s Public Safety Breakfast. At the event, the best of the best in public safety are celebrated. The event recognizes the extraordinary service of individuals and teams in the world

Landscaping and Leadership

James Albright 10.18.2021

Landscaping and leadership both require growth. I had the opportunity to connect over Coffee with Reagan Hines last week. Reagan owns Lakewood Landscape Management in the community and has followed Leadership and Main since the beginning. We share a mutual interest in landscaping. His business is landscaping. My career started in that world with the maintenance of parks and sports fields. That experience gave me a decent understanding of what goes into landscaping. It grew my understanding of turf grass management, irrigation, fertilization and weed control. In my early twenties, I tried to attend every Georgia Recreation and Parks Association training that I could and worked to create

How Great Coaches Win

James Albright 10.11.2021

Want to know how great coaches win? Styles vary, but they all have several things in common. Key factors that separate good coaches and great ones. One thing has been consistent in my thirty-nine years of existence on planet earth, sports. Either as a player or a coach, sports has always been a part of my life. As a player and coach, our teams played against great teams which were led by great coaches. Ones that knew how to win. Since it is Fall, we will focus this post on the sport of football. One that I am extremely familiar with as I spent twenty-one years of

Driving While Influencing

James Albright 10.03.2021

Great leaders could get busted driving while influencing every day. I caught my grandfather doing this in one of the most influential car rides in my life. The moment took place as a nine-year-old in the back of his extended cab Ford Ranger. I don’t mean the spacious crew cabs of today, but where the seats faced each other and shoulder room was limited! Paw Paw and his friend Billy were having a conversation in the front seat as if I did not exist. He was telling his friend that I was going to make something of myself. I remember the words clear as day. Those words would

Leaders Should Vacation Well

James Albright 09.27.2021

Leaders should vacation well. I regularly write about a group I am in with some leaders in our local community. In one of our discussions over lunch, we talked about this concept that leaders should vacation well. We work hard to perform well in our career, but do we apply the same effort to vacation well? Our work worlds move fast. We run ourselves in the ground to a point where we desire and look forward to a vacation. In those moments, the upcoming vacation can never get here soon enough. The intent of this blog is to help leaders make the turn from ordinary to extraordinary.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Coffee

James Albright 09.20.2021

Great leaders invest in breakfast, lunch, and coffee with others. These three meeting opportunities are a minimal financial investment with a high potential for rate of return. What if I told you that for $20 you could spend one hour with someone who has walked through the season of struggle you are currently in and came out on the other side? Would you pay $15 to be able to learn all the secrets of your trade by interviewing someone further ahead of you in your field? What if you could purchase a newly released leadership book for $18 that could change your world? Would you consider paying

Where Were You When

James Albright 09.13.2021

Where were you when? Depending on your generation, we all have an answer or answers to this question. Moments that intersected history that stopped the world in its tracks. Maybe it was a shuttle explosion, an assassination, the death of a prominent figure. Most of these moments are grounded in tragedy. For me and my generation, it was September 11, 2001. My friend since Middle School, Steven Oser and I were driving North on Main Street in Acworth, Georgia. We were two years out of high school and working on the grounds crew for the Acworth Parks, Recreation, and Community Resource Department. After finishing a job at

Extemporaneous Creates Memorable Experiences

James Albright 09.07.2021

Extemporaneous creates memorable experiences. My preference is to be planned and prepared in life. While these qualities have served me well in leadership, it can also restrict opportunities for adventure. When you Google the word extemporaneous it defines it as, “done without preparation.” That goes against my natural inclination. My buddy Todd Lollis shot me a text last Saturday to see if I wanted to go to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl Classic featuring the number three ranked Clemson Tigers and the number five ranked Georgia Bulldogs. After a quick check of my schedule and consultation with Shannon, the answer was yes! To pull the trigger on a decision

Emergency Hugs

James Albright 08.29.2021

Emergency hugs can change the world. I remember it like it was just yesterday. It was a brisk, fall evening in 2019 when the concept of emergency hugs came into existence. We were wrapping up football practice with conditioning as we usually did. As a result of their inability to follow instructions set forth by the coaching staff that fateful evening, the boys made the decision to participate in additional conditioning! Typically additional conditioning under these circumstances resulted in the occasional tears where consoling was needed. Whenever these corrective measures were taken, we always tried to huddle up after and reestablish expectations with the boys. A teachable moment.

Don’t Walk Past Trash

James Albright 08.22.2021

Leaders do not walk past trash in their worlds. There are two people in my world that have set this example for me. Through their actions, not their words, they inspired me to emulate their behavior. I watched my pastor Mike Linch and good friend Andy Duncan do this. Whether they knew I was watching or not. From their vehicle to the front door of the office, they collect trash on the way. This week we dive into this concept of don’t walk past trash and seven leadership lessons we can learn from it. It does not matter who you are, your status, or where you rank in