Leadership preparedness is about anticipating. As I prepare for an upcoming canoe trip, I share four things that can help us all be better prepared to lead our teams on the next big adventure.

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To delegate better, it helps to put more energy into the start of the process. With the help of a story about a naturalist stranded on a frozen lake in the Canadian sub-arctic, here are three ways to begin so that we get what we need at the end.

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Can we really plan to be lucky? He said, “Luck is the residue of design.”  Who was it, and what did he mean?  And more importantly, how can we put his idea to work so that the lucky breaks come when we roll the dice?  All that and more in this edition of Lines for […]

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How do we know when to change the plan? A casual remark by a friend last week got me thinking about the idea of flexibility and change.  As leaders, we choose the objectives and set the course.  But once we’re underway, how do we know if we should keep on keeping on, or if we […]

The post The Eraser Test: How to Know When It’s Time for a Change appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

How do you know if your plan will work? Having a solid plan is one thing; knowing that it will work is something entirely different.  In the transition from idea on paper to success in the real world, refining the plan though testing is probably one of the smartest things we can do. And as […]

The post Refining the Plan: Hamburgers on the Tennis Court? appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

Can you imagine climbing a staircase that is one mile high? Seems like a lot, right?  It would be the same as climbing the Empire State Building more than four times, the Washington Monument nine times, or Niagara Falls 31 times. But an amazing feat like climbing a mile-high staircase may not be as challenging […]

The post How to be Successful: The 9,051-Step Plan appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

I’m not paying you to agree with me.  I’m paying you to think. That’s Colin Powell’s approach to leadership. When it’s time for planning and problem-solving, the best leaders aren’t looking for unity and agreement. They want the opposite. They want dialogue, a clash of ideas.  It’s not the time to get comfortable.  It’s the […]

The post Why You Should Value the Nonconformist appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

  With our kids out of the house, we are moving from Pennsylvania to be closer to family in the Midwest. One of the many challenges of this move is to make sure we will be able to fit into the new place.  We are shrinking from a single-family house to a town home.  In […]

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Got a problem and having trouble finding a solution? Not long ago I was invited to work with a local youth group on leadership skills.  But though I was the “teacher,” the students managed to remind me of something very important about leadership and problem solving. Today we’ll look at three ways you can approach […]

The post How to Find Creative Solutions: The Case of the Falling Egg appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.

Have you bumped up to the next level recently? Taken on a leadership role? Congratulations!  Just keep in mind that what got you there might not be what keeps you there.  Today we’ll take a quick look at a common pitfall new leaders often succumb to, and some good questions to ask that will keep you headed in the […]

The post Doing it Best but Doing it Wrong! appeared first on RapidStart Leadership.