Our lunch was great. It was like the twenty years had never passed. We talked about our wives (only good things of course), our families, and certainly business. I laughed hard more than once as he shared anecdotal parenting stories from the past two decades. His sons, teenagers when I began working for him right out of college, were now grown men with wives of their own.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Amy Cooper Collier, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Girls on the Run Michiana. We hope you enjoy Amy's wisdom and perspective.

The good news for driven, always-improving, Type A leaders, is that your success may well be rooted in that Type-A soil. You have vision, enthusiasm, and a commitment to ever-higher standards. You work tirelessly to make a difference in your company, your community, and your world. A lot is expected of you: crystal-clear vision, inspirational motivation, extensive knowledge, wise perspective, up-to-date skills, encouraging guidance, authentic affirmation, solid decision-making, and the list goes on and on. Leadership isn’t for the faint of heart. 

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Adam Kronk, Head of School for La Lumiere School in LaPorte, Indiana. We hope you enjoy Adam’s wisdom and perspective.

I’m on the back of a rickety bio diesel truck, barreling down a dirt road outside Siem Reap, Cambodia. The sun has just come up, but it’s over 100 degrees and I’ve already broken out in a sweat. I’ve got a kroma—a thin, all-purpose scarf that seems to be standard issue for every Khmer person on the planet—wrapped around my neck covering my nose and mouth as a makeshift dust mask. There’s a lot of wind because of the speed at which we’re traveling. It’s so hot out that it feels like a hairdryer blowing in my face. I’ve kicked one of my flip flops off into the bed of the truck, itching the bottom of my foot where a mosquito bit it last night.

About a year into my tenure at Gibson, I was named to the Leadership Team and responsible for our revenue and growth in a “Chief Growth Officer” role. Not only was I new to Gibson, I previously had no technical knowledge or career experience in two of our three business units. Before my first major meeting with our group, I was already hearing the whispers about this newly created role and my (lack of) qualifications to be in it.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Wendy Keneipp, Partner at Q4intelligence. We hope you enjoy Wendy’s wisdom and perspective.

Are you holding back from making a major organizational change you know is best in the long term, but you just don’t know how to get started?

Whether it’s changing your business model, upping your marketing game, or rethinking your customer service practices, some decisions just seem so, well…big. And intimidating. And downright painful. In these situations, we can become paralyzed and unable to take action.

But inaction isn’t the answer. Because the longer you avoid the decision, the scarier that decision becomes. Likewise, the longer you avoid change, the more daunting change becomes.

Don’t get caught in the indecision trap! Take these steps and you’ll soon be on your way to being Captain Decisive! Or at least Corporal Decisive.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Jim Canfield, Managing Director at CEO Tools. We hope you enjoy Jim’s wisdom and perspective.

I recently got a new bicycle. It is a city/commuter bike purchased to be an addition to my more specialized road bike and mountain bike. It arrived in a big box ready for me to complete the assembly. Like many projects CEOs and managers run into, it was about 70% complete.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Joe Calloway, author of “Keep It Simple,” “Magnetic,” and several other game-changing business books. We hope you enjoy Joe’s wisdom and perspective.

Early in my career I worked in the real estate business. We were busy, which was good. But busy meant a lot of contracts, documents, and agreements, and with a high level of activity there was more chance that something could occasionally go wrong.

The owner of the firm was involved in the day-to-day business, and he was the one we’d go to if things got sticky or we couldn’t find a solution to a problem or see a resolution to a conflict. He had a standard practice when one of us would go to him for help.

What scares you? Is it clowns like the 2017 movie adaption of Stephen King’s It? Maybe it’s public speaking or blood and needles? If you relate to any of these, you’re not alone. This Washington Post article has all of them in their top 12 list of fears.

For me, it’s acrophobia, a fear of heights. I’m not sure where it came from. Perhaps it was my summers in high school painting the overhangs of old houses on a flimsy extension ladder. In any event, I prefer to avoid heights, namely situations that leave me up high and exposed. 

On a recent trip with my 14-year-old son William, I came face-to-face with my old nemesis, acrophobia. Not that I planned to.

Last week, we heard the story of a chicken and a pig, and learned about the first of two leadership qualities that mark bacon-level commitment.

Today we’re going to learn about the second quality of bacon-level commitment: Sacrifice.

The story is told of a pig and a chicken journeying together. The chicken grew hungry and recommended they stop to make some bacon and eggs. The pig replied that while it sounded like a great idea, there was a fundamental flaw in his plan. He went on to explain to his feathered friend that to make bacon and eggs, a chicken simply needs to be involved, but for a pig, it requires total commitment!

Is your leadership more aligned with a chicken or with a pig? That is, are you merely involved or are you totally committed?