Why am I doing this? Because I want to help you. Seriously, that has been my personal mission for most of my adult life. Unfortunately, I have failed at doing that as much as, or maybe even more, than I have succeeded. But I have finally found the secret – aging!
In other words it takes experience. And, surprisingly, some of the best wisdom comes from bad experiences. For example, here are some of my top learning experiences;
• The time I fired an employee on Christmas Eve.
• When I ridiculed an executive who tried to hire me for his startup that 25 years later is one of the largest media companies in the world.
• How I naively turned downed a large cash offer for a piece of property out of a false sense of obligation to the neighbors, who instantly took that as a sign of weakness rather than consideration and pounced on me.
And this is just a sampling from my list. I have a lot of experience about what doesn’t work and, thankfully, I have used those situations to make better decisions over the past 15 years. I think I can help you think more clearly about your role as a leader whether at work, at home or in your community.
Any leader today faces challenges that weren’t there a decade ago;
• Employees have communication access to each other that doesn’t require face-to-face work.
• Social media can expose your decision making to colleagues, constituents or customers before you have ended a meeting.
• You can’t shape your market with any certainty
So, here’s what you can expect from me in this blog.
• I will share solutions I have seen to tough management problems
• I will try to make you think about difficult subjects you would rather ignore.
• I will tell you about how I have failed and what finally worked for me.
• I will join you in a discussion about what it takes to lead with integrity and how my family and my faith have impacted me on this journey
• I will start a conversation between you and me about life around us from the pew to the public square.
Leadership isn’t something you do, it’s someone you become. I hope to connect with you on this journey of becoming a lasting leader.
Be encouraged,
Barry
