Mark Miller's Blog, page 14

Today’s Challenge: Getting UnStuck

Each week, I respond to a question submitted by a reader. Today, the issue has to do with two different, yet connected adversaries – fear and inertia. Specifically, “How do you overcome fear to start something new?”

I’m not sure where the myth of the fearless leader began – perhaps in ancient mythology…thus the name? In my life, and the leaders I know, fear is real. Fear about many things. One of our leading fears often revolves around the unknown – unfortunately, all the future holds is yet u...

The Heart of Leadership: Start Here

I’m really excited about the upcoming release of my new book, The Heart of Leadership. However, when I met with my publisher about 6 months ago, the future of the project was uncertain. My publisher is a truth teller. I love that – and at times, I don’t. Here’s the story…

I went to San Francisco to meet with the entire publishing team with the goal to get them energized to create, promote and sell the book. After my presentation, the feedback was mixed. In fact, I was told people don’t read bo...

How Good Do You Want to Be?

It seems as long as I can remember, I’ve been captivated by men and women who are at the top of their game – whether professional athletes, CEOs, doctors or artists. Do you ever wonder how they reached their elite status? What do you call “it” when you see it? I call it mastery.

What is mastery? As George Leonard describes in his book,Mastery, “…it resists definition but is instantly recognizable.”

Mastery could be described as the seemingly effortless, consistently excellent execution of a des...

Today’s Challenge: Letting People Fail

Today’s Challenge is a weekly series dedicated to answering questions submitted by readers. Today’s question is one leaders ask throughout their career: How do you know when to let someone fail?

Interestingly, this question is usually framed in the context that failure is a bad thing. The irony is, we learn the most when we fail. Think about the sale you lost. You learned from it – if you were going to stay in sales, you learned from it. Think about the test you failed in college. You either l...

The Heart of Leadership: Courage is Required

Years ago, when I began the process of writing The Heart of Leadership, I identified dozens of leadership character traits. In my attempt to create a short list of the most essential, I decided Respond with Courage had to be included. Courage is the catalyst for great leadership.

Without courage, our leadership is latent, unseen and nothing more than unrealized potential. Leadership without courage is not leadership at all. It is courage that puts leadership into play. Its presence in our live...

An Afternoon with The[Robert]D.

Last Friday was a remarkable day! I traveled with three other guys to Franklin, Tennessee to meet with Robert Smith, also known as The[Robert]D. You probably don’t know that name. He’s been working behind the scenes for more than three decades to help someone else be successful. We went searching for best practices for building a strong brand. We were blown away by what we found!

For 33 years, Robert has been working with Andy Andrews. Andy is an amazing communicator and writer. Andy has writt...

Today’s Challenge: I Don’t Trust You

Each Friday, I respond to a question submitted by a leader. Today’s question comes from a leader who wants to delegate to someone but does not trust him/her. On the surface, this may seem like an easy question to answer, but I’m wondering what the real issue may be.I think we’ve got to ask a few more questions before jumping to a conclusion.

First, what makes you think the person is not trustworthy? What specific behaviors has the person exhibited in the past to earn the label untrustworthy? H...

The Heart of Leadership: I Own This…

In my upcoming book, The Heart of Leadership, one of the big ideas is that lack of skills rarely derails a leader – skills are too easy to learn. Most often, the issues that create challenges for us are those of leadership character.

In the book, I outline five specific character traits you typically find in the best leaders. Today, we’ll take a deeper look at one those attributes: our willingness to Accept Responsibility.

When plans are not executed as they should be or goals are not met, if w...

Why Infrastructure Matters – Part 2

Last week, I started a post on the critical importance of infrastructure for organizations that want to grow. To pick up where we left off, I define infrastructure as…

The critical, behind the scenes elements and activities required for the sustained growth and vitality of the organization.

For those who read last week’s post, your homework assignment was to begin to identify the elements of essential infrastructure for your organization. You may want to compare your list with the examples that...

Today’s Challenge: A “Strong” Dysfunctional Leader

Each week, I answer a question submitted by a leader. This week’s question is about a “strong leader” who’s created dysfunction within their team. The challenge appears even greater because the leader in question is serving as a volunteer. I do have a few thoughts – even though you may not like them…

First, I’d like to deal with the issue generically and then move to a few specifics regarding volunteers. I’ll frame my ideas under three headings:

Your Responsibility – If you are accountable for...