How Great Leaders Create Engaged Cultures
After meeting with a national champion athletic coach, a president of a growing university and an amazing principal of a 3,600-student high school—I’ve drawn at least one conclusion about quality leadership: Great leaders create the campus culture. This means, when you arrive, you are the “Chief Culture Officer.” You improve the culture, through your own style and personality, and lift everyone to
One Great Reason to Reduce Social Media Use
I just finished speaking to both parents and students at a high school and—wouldn’t you know it—social media was the all-consuming topic of my two days on campus. So many parents felt obliged to purchase a smart phone for their child as a middle-schooler, and now years into the social media craze, many feel it’s an addiction. One parent called
The Consequence of Undivided Attention
I just met a mom at a parent conference who approached me afterward asking, “How do parents do it theses days?” When I inquired what she meant, she said: How do moms offer undivided attention to their children and still get everything done? Herein lies the new gauge for today’s parents. We assume that any good parent is able to provide undivided attention
Four Ways Gratitude Can Change Your Life
Thanksgiving is the time of year that most of us busy Americans get to push the Pause button on our lives and relax with friends or family. It’s supposed to be the time we reflect on how fortunate we are for the people around us, the food inside of us, and the “stuff” in front of us, every day. We
The Unexpected Outcome of the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting
Every now and then, you hear a story that takes your breath away. A true story that defies human logic, but displays human nature at its very best. Such a story took place a few weeks ago in Pennsylvania. By now, you’ve heard various accounts of the tragic shooting that took place at the Tree of Life Synagogue, in Pittsburgh, PA.
How a Pig Increased Initiative in Students
With Thanksgiving upon us—I’d love to tell you about something I am thankful for. The story below fills me with both pride and hope. Paoli High School is one of the schools The Growing Leaders Initiative collaborates with. We’ve granted Habitudes® resources, to help them learn leadership as teenagers. (The Growing Leaders Initiative is the philanthropic arm of our mission that gifts
How Do We Build Good Leaders in High School Athletics?
A high school basketball coach surprised me when he told me recently that he couldn’t get any of his boys on the team to be the “captain.” Typically, he said, the team votes on each season’s new captains, but when the votes were counted, the two students who got the most votes turned down the job. They didn’t want the responsibility
Two Skills Every Student Needs Before Graduation
There’s an ongoing tension that educational leaders constantly feel on their jobs. Almost every educator I interact with these days faces a tension between two realities: The need to teach to the test, so students score high enough to get funding. The desire to prepare students to be life and career ready upon graduation. This is the dilemma of 21st century
What You Can Do to Enable Kids to Grow Up
After a lively debate with a student group about the essence of healthy leadership, one student approached me with an indifferent attitude toward preparing to be a leader. When the subject came up of how slowly kids are maturing today, this male student said to me: “What’s the big hurry? I’ll probably live until I’m a hundred. I’ve got plenty of time
Positive Discipline: Three Practical Strategies Parents Can Use
I’m hearing more and more stories lately of teenagers filing lawsuits against parents. It’s quite disconcerting to me. In the wake of decades of expanding children’s rights, kids are now using terms with adults like: You can’t do that to me. I have rights to my privacy. This is my life to live how I want to. I’m going to
My Favorite Leadership Quotes
Every year I post a list. It’s a list I think leaders like you will appreciate and benefit from. I’ve posted lists of my favorite leadership books, my favorite leadership movies and even my favorite leadership examples—and many of them are students! Today, I’d like to share with you some of my favorite leadership quotes. After serving with John C. Maxwell
When Positive Words Negatively Affect Students
I’ve watched the influence of the words of leaders, teachers and parents for years now. Far too often, when we speak we’re only thinking about how we feel at the moment or what we’re thinking in that moment—not how those words will affect our kids. It isn’t until later that we recognize what those words have done to the mindset
How to Manage Impulsive Reactions
When I asked student athletes recently what the number one change was that they’d like to make in their life—their response surprised me. Very insightfully, most of them agreed: “I need to be less impulsive in my decisions.” We live in a day where everything seems to be moving faster and faster. Additionally, we tend to be impulsive in our reactions, thanks