10-You don’t ask for help when you need it.

9-You have an inward (rather and an outward) mindset.

8-You do not touch, move and inspire anyone.

7-You allow your fears and saboteurs get the best of you.

6-You do not honor your word to yourself or others.

5-You continue to make yourself right and others wrong.

4-You avoid crucial and difficult conversations.

3-You run ineffective and inefficient meetings.

2-You succumb the myth of time scarcity.

And the #1 reason you’ll fail as a leader in 2017 is that you choose not to invest in your own learning and growth.

David Langiulli is a certified professional coach who helps nonprofit leaders flourish and thrive. He is also the author of The Essential Leadership Guide for Fundraising Professionals. Grab your FREE copy now by becoming a member at www.FundraisingLeadership.org.

I am currently reading the autobiography of Richard Feynman entitled: Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman. It is a collection of vignettes from the life of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Feynman was a consummate prankster. He eschewed conventional norms in science and society and left an indelible mark on both.

While I recommend Feynman’s story (a New York Times bestseller at the time of its publication), I caution that it is not a politically correct book, nor was he a politically correct man. So it is with those truly unique individuals who cause mischief and disrupt the status quo. They are often referred to as “leaders.”
[Read more…]

This week I’m dealing with my father transitioning to an assisted living facility after 10+ years of enduring the aftermath of lymphoma, heart disease, and stroke. We humorously refer to him as the “triple threat.”

Like Frankin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), my father is now mostly confined to a wheelchair. His metaphorical physical wings got clipped some time ago. But not his spiritual wings. Those continue to help him soar.
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In his excellent course The Science of Mindfulness, Professor Ron Siegel from the Harvard Medical School lays out the modern scientific evidence for the benefits of meditation practice–one of the pathways toward mindfulness.

It is becoming clearer through cutting edge research that mindfulness (or the awareness of present experience) which has been practiced for over 2,500 years is a reliable pathway to increased wisdom, compassion, and courage–qualities possessed by great leaders and organizations.
[Read more…]

Toward the end of his book, Unbeatable Mind, Mark Divine introduces the expression “embracing the suck” in reference to accepting what is even in the face of great adversity.

The saying comes from the military, and in my own life I can recall multiple occasions where embracing the suck was absolutely necessary, including: [Read more…]