Generation Z–as with any generation–is living in a new “narrative.” In today’s world, kids are growing up in a time that is both exhilarating and frightening for them. This is causing changes that can be difficult to understand. In fact, they are so different from older generations that parents and adult leaders can feel both frustrated with them and fearful

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Every parent, teacher or coach has interacted with students who appeared completely preoccupied with their own little world. For centuries, adults have repeated instructions to children only to have those kids fail to follow through on what they were asked to do. Students today are truly a part of a “distracted generation.” For those of you who are disheartened by

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Tim Elmore interviews Dr. Gary Davison, principal of Lambert High School. Gary is a fantastic leader who understands the importance of building a healthy school culture. In this interview, the two discuss Gary's  journey in the world of education, the challenges he has faced, how he overcame them and the principles he has used to lead the way in building

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Tim Elmore and Andrew McPeak discuss the reality facing today's athletic programs: athletes are transferring schools or de-committing. On today's podcast, they discuss the reasons this is happening and what coaches can do to prevent athletes from de-committing or transferring schools. Resources: Habitudes for Athletes, The New School Coach, the Growing Leaders Blog Social: @GrowingLeaders, @TimElmore and @AndrewMcPeak Contact: [email protected], [email protected]

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This week, Tim Elmore and Andrew McPeak tackle the subject “generational diversity” in the workplace. Today, organizations not only experience ethnic diversity and gender diversity in the workplace, but a diversity of generations attempting to work together, including Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and now Gen Z. And with these two newer generations come new terms of engagement. How can

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Tim Elmore interviews President and COO of Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Dave Katz. Tim and Dave talk about the components of a healthy life-giving culture, the importance of core values and how to best apply these in your own work environments. Dave Katz is one of the featured speakers for our 2019 RoundTable for Principals in Atlanta, Ga June 20-21. For

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Emotional intelligence in students has become a front and center issue for so many educators across America. Any student struggling with anxiety or depression will benefit from what educators now describe as: Social Emotional Learning or S.E.L. This topic is taking the K-12 educational world by storm, as a growing number of administrators recognize that students may be hindered from mastering reading,

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Do you know the slang terms of this generation? Parents, teachers, coaches, and employers usually don’t need to worry about the new slang terms that students invent and use. It's something that comes with every generation of kids. However, there's one caveat.  Some terms can have harmful or double meaning that adults should be aware of. So, what do we

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In today's bonus podcast episode, The Assistant Athletic Director of Student Athlete Enhancement at the University of Alabama, Jessie Gardner is interviewed by Growing Leaders' Director of Strategic Partnerships, JT Thoms. Jessie shares about a challenge that most athletic organizations face—how do you get buy-in from your athletic department when you're building your student athletic programming? Enjoy this interview as they

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Education, Generation iY®, Leadership, Parenting

A few weeks ago, a story made its way across America about a small, private school football team in Grapevine, Texas that did something very unusual. They were scheduled to play a juvenile detention center in football, Gainesville State School the next Friday. They knew that those young inmates would have no one cheering for them in the stands, no

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Athletics, Habitudes, Leadership

I have been very encouraged over the last five days. Our team, at Growing Leaders, had the privilege of meeting with and/or training leaders in five professional baseball clubs: The Atlanta Braves, The Pittsburgh Pirates, the Kansas City Royals, the San Francisco Giants and the Cleveland Indians. Because I have loved baseball all of my life—I was in hog heaven. But even

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Culture, Generation iY®, Leadership

What’s happening in Cairo today -- I predicted three years ago. If things don’t change, Egypt will be the first of many countries who experience turmoil. Allow me to summarize the Egypt conflict: - The population is 80 million. - 60% of population is below age of 30. - There is 90% unemployment within that age group. This equation is always a recipe for disaster:

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Leadership

I assume you’ve been watching the news lately. David Kirkpatrick, reporting in the New York Times from Cairo wrote, “Last Thursday, a small group of Internet-savvy young political organizers gathered in the Cairo home of an associate of Mohamed ElBaradei, the diplomat and Nobel laureate. They had come to plot a day of street protests calling for the ouster of President

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Leadership

Why do intelligent, emotionally healthy people need leaders? Wouldn’t you think that a group of 15 reasonably smart people could figure out the best direction to take without someone telling them? On paper, this makes sense. It sounds great. It just doesn’t play out in life. Think about leadership from a philosophical standpoint. People need leaders not because they are stupid. In

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Leadership, Workplace

Have you ever noticed -- certain topics are never discussed at work? What’s funny is… nearly everyone’s thinking about them. They could be mammoth and problematic… but because they’re sensitive issues, people are afraid to talk about them. They are like a “hot potato.” Nobody wants to touch them or at least, hold them for very long. I do leadership training full time.

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Generation iY®, Leadership, Workplace

I was privileged to be apart of the Leadership and Influence Summit 2010 earlier this month, and thought I would share the video I taped for them incase you were unable to watch when they aired it. They asked for me to talk about understanding Generation iY in the workplace, and to give you a glimpse into who they are.

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Leadership

Hey Readers, I have an important question for you. It’s about a new idea for the Leadership2Go subscription we’re offering next year. (Leadership2Go is an online mentoring community where leaders receive video training, reading assignments, discussion questions, robust notes, and an exercise. It’s like a leadership growth plan for the year.) Even if you don’t plan to participate, I hope you

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Leadership

This year, I launched “Leadership2Go.” It’s an online leadership learning community for leaders everywhere who want to lead the next generation well. As I lay plans for 2011, I want to improve the experience. We’ll have even better video segments, teaching notes, book assignments, assessments, and a community to converse with along the way. I’d like you to participate in helping me

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Leadership

I’m sure you’ve heard about it on the news. A Gainesville, Florida pastor named Terry Jones and his church congregation threatened to burn copies of the Quran this past Saturday, September 11th, the anniversary of terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. This was their way of responding to the Islamic activities from that day and since that time. Pastor Jones got

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Culture, Generation iY®, Habitudes, Leadership

This past Friday, I spoke at Jefferson High School in East Texas. I met with the school superintendant and her staff, then did an assembly for the student body, met with the football team, and finally had lunch with the head football coach. It was the coach that arranged this series of meetings. His name is Scott Hale. He has been

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Leadership

Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing the president of Delta Airlines, Ed Bastian. Ed is a warm and intelligent leader who possesses both a high IQ and high EQ. Prior to becoming president he served as Vice President of Finance and Controller of Delta Airlines, Inc. For a “numbers” guy, Ed demonstrates a keen awareness of the priority of

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Culture, Generation iY®

In my last two blog posts, I’ve attempted to sound a warning about the potential crisis of Generation Y, because of their gigantic population. They will be the largest generation in modern history. In past gigantic generations, violence has followed. Big time violence, due to the fact that the economy could not sustain so many young people entering the adult

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Culture, Generation iY®

I am certain you’ve heard some of the same stories I’ve heard over the last ten years. In communities around America, local hardware stores have been driven out of business by the entrance of a new Home Depot in town. Communities feel a similar impact when a Walmart sets up shop in town. Local discount stores just can’t compete with

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Generation iY®, Leadership

I had the privilege of doing a webinar this afternoon for a great group of youth workers in Alaska. Part of our discussion was on the fact that today’s students represent a generation of paradox. Although many of them are advanced biologically, cognitively, and socially, they are often stunted in their emotional growth. Here are seven observations I’ve made: Paradox One:  They

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Generation iY®, Leadership

I just saw the movie “Alice in Wonderland.” I went primarily because I enjoy Johnny Depp portraying eccentric roles in stories. From Edward Scissorshands to Willie Wonka to Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, he is always fun to watch. In “Alice,” Depp plays the Mad Hatter and says something to Alice that could be said to many of us today.

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Culture, Habitudes, Leadership

I spent my entire day yesterday with two of our team members at Growing Leaders in Surprise, Arizona. Jeremy Slayden, Holly Moore and I were back at spring training with the Kansas City Royals, for the third season. They are taking their minor league players through the third round of “Habitudes For Athletes.” Dayton Moore, the General Manager of the Royals,

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Education, Habitudes, Leadership, Parenting, Workplace

I just returned from an invigorating day with faculty at a university near Dallas. During our time together, we discussed two themes that preoccupy school administrators as much as any: 1. Student Engagement 2. Student Success In our morning session, one instructor shared a note he’d recently received from a student. The young man had decided to drop out of school. Here’s what

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Leadership

Last week, I blogged about the idea that good things can come from bad situations, when those situations force us to do something good we normally wouldn’t do. Often due to laziness or lack of motivation, our intentions are better than our actions. Today, we see millions of Americans getting rid of credit card debt and saving money, because of the

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Culture, Leadership

Finally, we receive some good news about the U.S. economy. In 2009, U.S. credit card spending dropped to its lowest in 30 years. In addition, the number of individuals in America who are saving money rose to its highest level in 15 years. We finally listened to financial counselors who’ve told us for years we need to stop using so

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Leadership

My long-time friend and mentor, Dick Wynn, used to always tell me that good leadership involved three ingredients: 1. Relationships 2. Results 3. Resilience I understood the first two immediately. I’ve learned over time that successful schools, companies, NPOs, and churches always combine a healthy pursuit of relationships and results. The third word, resilience, was different. I understood it, but didn’t fully comprehend why

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Leadership

From time-to-time, people ask me how I read a book. I often get this question after I send out my favorite book-reading list each January (to see this blog post, click here). It happened again this year. In 1987, while I was finishing my master’s degree, a faculty member shared with me how he reads a book and saves time. I

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