The Yo-Yo Effect
The yo-yo effect of leadership is a concept reflective of the ups and downs of leadership. A leader is subject to the upest of ups and the downest of downs, every minute of every day. As most of us are aware, a yo-yo is a toy, basically a wound-up spool of string. It moves as far down as it can go, then rebounds back up. When it returns to the top, back down it goes. Up and down, up and down. The Super Bowl I spent twenty-one years developing young men in the sport of football. I vividly remember one game that particularly sticks out to me that
I Need Help
The three most utilized words in a leader’s vocabulary are, “I need help.” As a leader, it is easy to subscribe to the false narrative that we should always have it all together. We can be expected to be all things, to solve all things, and be available to all things. The pressure to perform can be a heavy burden to bear. I Need Help Leaders are a magnet for everything. Problems, decisions, tasks, conflict, bad news, blame, you name it. A lot of little things can add up fast. Exhaustion can set in before we know it. By the time most of us realize it, we are
The Cheapest Seats
Baseball legend Babe Ruth once said, “the loudest boos always come from the cheapest seats.” Those seats are occupied by the best of the best at critiquing others. They are miserable people whose game plan is to drag everyone else into the abyss of misery they dwell in. I love sports, I love developing young athletes even more. The first twenty or so years of my life, I spent participating in sports. Twenty-four years of my adult life have been coaching baseball, football, basketball, and/or wrestling. All of my life, I have been a collegiate and professional sports fan. I have been booed on the playing field and
The Man in the Red Bandana
With every passing September 11 anniversary, I cannot help but to think about the story of the Man in the Red Bandana. “What would you do in the last hour of your life? Where would you be? Who would remember you? What would it look like?” are the questions that the narrator led off with in an ESPN Sports Center (SC) Featured that I watched several years go. The story was about one of the many heroes of the September 11 attacks, one that would forever be etched in my heart and mind. Welles Crowther Welles Crowther started carrying a red bandana that his father had given him
Happy Places
Leaders need “Happy Places.” These places are escapes for all of us. In the movie Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler plays a character named Happy. Happy is a hockey player turned professional golfer. Whenever things got tough on the course, Happy’s caddie “Chub” encouraged him to go to his happy place. It settled him down and he played better. For me, my specific Happy Places are Ellijay, Georgia and Saint George Island, Florida, mountains, rivers, and beaches. Then again, any place with the ability to be waist deep in water with a fishing pole can be a Happy Place. When things get crazy, things get fast, and when the
The Intersections Ahead
The intersections ahead will define our life and leadership. Too often, the rear-view mirror distracts us from all that the windshield has to offer in this world. Learning from our experiences is an extremely valuable tool, but can also leave us stuck at an intersection in life. The windshield offers all the excitement, potential, and possibilities that lie ahead of us. Whenever I speak to groups about leadership, I generally tell the audience that life and leadership are a series of intersections. There are always crossroads with intersections that await. This was a special weekend for our family. My daughter, Ashtyn Ann, turned sweet sixteen. Her cousin and
Connected Leaders
Connected leaders have the pulse of an organization and its people. In the medical world, your pulse determines your heart rate. According to the Mayo Clinic, a healthy resting heart rate should be between sixty and one hundred beats per minute. Heart rates consistently too high are not good, consistently too low are not good, and irregular ones are certainly not good. To be considered healthy, we need to regularly be within a good range. To do this, we should check our pulse consistently. Just checking it when we feel good or when we feel bad is not a quality indicator of the rhythm of our heart. A
The Gratitude Gap
Deep within all of us we can find a gratitude gap. It first appears as a little bitty crack and can quickly widen with enough neglect. Gaps are formed by the absence of gratitude. Whenever gaps exist, they always get filled with something. It is our decision on what fills it. Gratitude is an outward expression of our appreciation and thankfulness for things and others. It is nearly impossible for us to experience anything negative emotionally if we are filling the gap with gratitude. Don’t believe me? Try it! Gratitude and negativity cannot coexist, one always wins out. Deep down, each of us desires to be grateful people.
Experience or Inexperience
Experience or inexperience, which one is the most valuable? Most people would probably quickly respond with experience, and rightfully so. If we take just a minute to wrestle with this question, maybe it is not as easy to answer as we think. My son Grant turned fourteen this weekend. We celebrated it by heading to Blue Ridge, Georgia for a day of trout fishing. My brother Steven and my nephew Tucker joined Grant and I for the trip. Two experienced, veteran fishermen and two less experienced ones. While Grant and Tucker love fishing and do so quite frequently, they were not as familiar with the mountain fishing experience.
The Path to the Top
The path to the top is full of many different characters. Most people with any level of ambition desire to get to the pinnacle of their careers. Whether it is the head of an organization, leading a division within the organization, or being a senior person on the team, we all have/had aspirations to get to the top. If you have followed Leadership and Main for any period of time, one of my escapes is to hike Kennesaw Mountain. In addition to it being a challenging physical activity, it gives me space to think, and to reflect on my world. Many of the 133 blog posts have been