A LIST OF SOME OF MY FAVORITE AND SOUND MESSAGES FROM 2021

My favorite and sound messages from 2021:

1. Laugh WITH, not at.

2. More is caught than taught.

3. Listen, just don’t wait to talk.

4. Plan on the plan not going as planned.

5. Roots are shallow if you don't nourish them.

6. Be transformational rather than transactional.

7. Failure is required for growth and development.

8. Healthy relationships will help guide your process.

9. Please be kind to yourself. Perfection is not the goal.

10. Embrace shared moments of authentic vulnerability.

11. Pain shared is pain divided; Joy shared is joy multiplied.

12. How you speak can be more impactful than what you say.

13. Celebrate small wins instead of just waiting for epic victories.

14. Give people freedom to become great, not simply structures to be good.

15. There is no distinct map to creating great culture. It takes constant work.

16. Make sure you share the stories and mistakes that have made your culture what it is.

17. Connect, communicate, collaborate, and celebrate…and embrace all alliterations!

18. Be willing to get to know other people through meaningful relationships that matter.

19. Systems matter when selecting talent, but make sure you also spend time testing the system.

20. Foster intentional curiosity with your team for guided discovery of the “why” and “how”.

21. Those you lead should feel that knowing you and knowing your values are one and the same.

22. How you speak to yourself will have a direct correlation to how you communicate with others.

23. The heart and health of your organization should be everything, every day, for everyone.

24. Trust the power of your words and don’t rely on unnecessary exclamations points to emphasize your point!!!

25. Help develop people holistically, make time for them, and honor them as people, not just for their job skills.

26. Spend time figuring out what attracts people to your methods, to your culture, and to your organization.

27. Create an environment that allows for clear processes, proper expectations, and honest and consistent feedback.

28. Leadership is messy. People are messy. Progress can be messy. Embrace all the messiness as an opportunity to grow.

29. Create a culture that is magnetic, where people also choose you. Make your team/organization/company something that people want to join.

30. Make sure you and your teammates are aligned on the definition of “success”. This will massively affect how you lead and develop yourself and others.

31. Your team’s culture can be impacted by what you celebrate and what you tolerate. As a leader, what do you want to celebrate? What are you willing to tolerate?

32. Culture can't be created unintentionally or by coasting. It requires constant time and attention and it’s so much more effective when driven by more than one person.

33. You can have "good" hires that can turn into non-fits and "questionable" hires that can be rock stars, depending on how they are developed or not developed.

34. Avoid making a joke at another person’s expense. You may lose a few laughs but you’ll gain tons of trust. And positive, joyful humor feels great and transcends all sorts of barriers.

35. Before developing others, have you and your team of leaders developed yourselves? Make sure to self-evaluate to understand where you are and where you are heading.

36. What is not being said is just as important, if not more important, than what is being said, and it's up to leadership to leverage curiosity to understand why and what those things are.

37. It’s interesting that when strangers get together with the best intentions, you can realize things about yourself that you haven't learned when around people you've known forever.

38. People do not want to be told what to do, they want to be led to the vision they have for themselves. Therefore, you must know their vision and their goals to help guide them in the right direction.

39. Culture starts with getting clarity on how you want your people to move towards a common vision. There must be daily conversation along with reinforcement of the values and behaviors you want exemplified from you and your team.

40. We should all challenge ourselves to look past the obvious indicators of "success". It's not just what's reflected on the scoreboard, on social media, in the bank account or in the job title. Success means different things to different people. Define what success means to you and more importantly, know your teammates’ definition of success…and honor it daily.