Nov 16

Nov 16 The Heroic Arts of Leadership at Work: Why Your Leadership Journey is Our Human Journey

Hero's Journey, Heroic Arts, Building Heroes, Workplace

Whether we are learning to ride a bike or starting a new job, the hero’s journey offers us a guide for the process we will go through: We commit to doing something new or different, we encounter people who help us along the way, we experience setbacks and successes, and in the end, we achieve our goal.

The hero’s journey is simply the human journey.

In the hero’s journey, we step outside of our comfort zone to challenge the status quo; we confront our foes, our fears, and our failures; and in the end, we create positive change and influence the world around us, as big or as small as it may be. Leadership is an iterative process. Artists are always creating and inspiring; leaders are always influencing and making the people around them better.

Oct 12

Oct 12 Courage Does Not Exist Without Vulnerability

Chad Ellsworth

Heroic Arts, Workplace

We don’t always have experts we can turn to on demand who can point out small details with big implications or show us what we may have missed. When we miss the meaning of things or miss them altogether, we miss opportunities for the people around us to feel heard, seen, and valued.

It’s impossible to make people feel heard, seen, and valued without hearing, seeing, and valuing them.

You can’t make people feel cared for without truly caring for them.

Jul 27

Jul 27 Practice Makes Perfect

Kristin Ellsworth

Guest Posts, Workplace

In fact, most managers I know have bookshelves dedicated to books on, around, and related to how to be a better manager. It’s not only common, it’s almost expected. It’s a badge of honor for a manager to have the latest and best management books. And no doubt, they’ve read them all. Why, then, are so many of these same managers mediocre leaders despite having read all of the best books? I think part of the answer lies in the difference between being in motion and taking action.

Jun 8

Jun 8 How Humor Can Fuel or Fizzle Your Leadership

Chad Ellsworth

Workplace

For people who use humor as a part of their leadership or personal style, how they dispense that humor can have either favorable or disastrous results. Humor is a powerful and transformative tool in the leadership toolbox, and whether that power is leveraged to “build up” or to “tear down” is a direct result of how it is used.

Jun 1

Jun 1 Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss without Losing Your Humanity (My 3 Takeaways)

Chad Ellsworth

Book Summary, Workplace

“Radical Candor puts building good relationships at the center of a boss’s job,” Scott said. “In fact, my favorite lines in the whole book are these: ‘Relationships are core to your job. If you think that you can [fulfill your responsibilities as a manager] without strong relationships, you are kidding yourself,’” (p. xiii-xiv).

Good relationships are characterized by “Radical Candor,” Scott said, which exists at the intersection of “caring personally” and “challenging directly.” Too little of both leads to “Manipulative Insincerity.” A deficit of caring results in “Obnoxious Aggression,” while a lack of challenging directly ends in “Ruinous Empathy.”

Radical Candor is not only powerful, but scalable, as it possesses the potential to transform the culture of the organization.