Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Every leader wants to be known as a great decision maker.

That sounds admirable until you realize the average person makes roughly 35,000 decisions every single day.

At my first CEO role, my Chief Administrative Officer once told me:

“You should probably only make six big decisions a year.”

At the time, I thought leadership meant making the call.
The call on strategy.
The call on people.
The call on growth.
The call on culture.

I assumed the seat required answers.

Experience taught me something different.

Some leaders make too many decisions because they believe leadership means control.

Others seek buy-in for every difficult issue because they fear getting it wrong.

Neither works for very long.

Strong organizations are not built by executives who dominate every decision.
They are also not built by leaders who crowdsource courage.

The best leaders seek perspective.
They ask questions.
They invite disagreement.
They listen longer than most people realize.

But eventually, the room gets quiet.

And somebody has to own the decision.

That is the part people rarely see from the front lines.

Executive leadership comes with perspectives that are not always visible throughout the organization.
Some information is confidential.
Some consequences are downstream.
Some risks are invisible until much later.

Yet decisions are still judged immediately.
Second guessed publicly.
Questioned confidently by people who only see part of the picture.

One of the hardest transitions in leadership is separating ego from stewardship.

Every leader has an ego.
Healthy leaders recognize it.
Unhealthy leaders are consumed by it.

And some suffer from hubris…believing the title alone makes them right.

That is dangerous territory.

Because stewardship is bigger than the individual leader.

It extends to employees.
Families.
Customers.
Culture.
Reputation.
Longevity.

A business is not a personal platform for ego validation.

It is something entrusted to your care for a period of time.

Healthy organizations should encourage rigorous debate.
Strong leaders should invite challenge.
The best executive teams wrestle through difficult decisions together.

But eventually responsibility settles somewhere.

One person usually carries the weight of the final call.

And that responsibility is often taken far more seriously than people realize.

From the outside, decisions can look cold.
Quick.
Calculated.

From the inside, many come with sleepless nights, pressure, risk, and consequences that affect real people and real families.

That burden changes mature leaders.

You begin to understand leadership is not about winning arguments.

It is about stewardship.

About getting it right more times than not.
About protecting the long-term health of the organization.
About making decisions based on what is best for the business…not what is best for your popularity, your comfort, or your ego.

And if you lead long enough, you learn something humbling:

Some of your best decisions will still be criticized.
Some of your hardest decisions will never be fully understood.
And some of your most important decisions will feel very lonely.

That comes with the seat.

But leadership was never supposed to be about comfort.

It was supposed to be about responsibility.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, graduates!
It’s Friday!

That means it’s commencement speech season.

This time of year, industry titans line up to give advice.
Bold.
Inspiring.
Clean enough to print on coffee mugs.

But few things in life are ever that simple.

So instead of giving you one oversized motivational quote that sounds great on Instagram and falls apart by Tuesday morning… I’d rather offer a few caveats.

A few truths.

A few lessons from a battle-scarred executive nobody has heard of… but maybe someone you should listen to for a few minutes before you walk across that stage.

Because there comes a moment at every graduation where the applause fades just enough for reality to sneak into the room.

And suddenly you realize:

The diploma is not a finish line.

It’s permission.

Permission to begin getting tested.

So here we go.

1. Interviewing

When I was in college, the best interview advice I received was simple:

“Always wear a white shirt.”

Back then, that meant professionalism.

Today, half the billion-dollar founders look like they got dressed in the back seat of an Uber.

The point is this:

The rules change.

Character doesn’t.

Competence matters.
Integrity matters more.
People eventually forget the résumé lines and remember whether they could trust you when things became difficult.

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2. Remain curious

I had classmates who couldn’t wait to build a routine — almost like they were sprinting toward the mundane.

Don’t do that.

Every day is a new opportunity.

Some great leaders have said:
“Every morning I fire myself when I wake up… and hire myself again by the time I get to work.”

That mindset matters.

The world changes too fast for comfort to survive very long.

The people who thrive are the ones willing to learn the next thing before they’re forced to.

Adapt.
Adjust.
Repeat.

The market will evolve whether you do or not.

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3. Be fluid… with confidence

Adapt continuously.

Not because you’re weak.
Because you’re paying attention.

Comfort can quietly become complacency.

You don’t have to live paranoid.
Just don’t become ignorant to the ways of the world.

Learn to walk into difficult rooms calmly.

Act like you’ve been there before — even while learning in real time.

Confidence is not loudness.

It’s steadiness under pressure.

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4. Assume noble intent… but don’t be naïve

Most people are not waking up every morning plotting your downfall.

Give people the benefit of the doubt first.

You’ll build better teams, stronger relationships, and avoid becoming cynical before life even begins.

But don’t confuse kindness with blindness.

Pay attention to patterns.
Listen carefully.
Trust actions more than speeches.

You can have a generous heart and still maintain wise boundaries.

That balance will save you years of unnecessary pain.

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5. Take care of the people around you… but start with yourself

The airline industry figured this out years ago:

Secure your own mask before helping others.

You cannot continuously pour strength into people while running empty yourself.

Protect your health.
Protect your peace.
Protect your discipline.

Burnout is not a badge of honor.

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6. Find your purpose

Find your purpose early if you can.

If you can’t, start moving anyway.

Purpose usually reveals itself through motion — not meditation.

Pay attention to the work that energizes you when nobody is watching.

Pay attention to the conversations that make time disappear.

That’s often where your real direction begins.

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7. Understand the difference between market value and adding value

Market value is what they pay you.

Adding value is why they keep calling.

One fluctuates with the economy.

The other compounds over a lifetime.

Chase becoming indispensable — not just impressive.

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8. Be kind

Not selectively.

To everyone.

The assistant.
The intern.
The exhausted waitress.
The coworker carrying a burden you know nothing about.

Your reputation enters rooms before you do… and lingers after you leave.

And forgive people faster than they expect.

Bitterness is expensive luggage for a long trip.

When someone becomes angry or contentious, remaining calm is not weakness.

It’s emotional intelligence.

It’s refusing to allow another person to hijack your mission, your purpose, or your day.

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9. Be a leader who builds more leaders

Because someday — much sooner than you think — you’ll look in the mirror and see a 61-year-old stranger wondering how the years moved so quickly.

And on that day, your greatest satisfaction won’t come from what you accumulated.

It will come from who you became.

The leaders you mentored.
The people you developed.
The phone calls years later from former employees still seeking your advice… and quietly putting it into practice.

That’s the long game.

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10. Don’t just be the arrow. Be the crossbow.

Most careers stall because people aim too low and celebrate too early.

Don’t spend your life chasing the closest target.

Be the crossbow.

Build tension.
Develop strength.
Learn discipline.
Practice patience.

Then launch yourself toward something worthy of your full arc — not just the next paycheck, title, or promotion.

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11. Protect your health in all four dimensions

Physical.
Mental.
Emotional.
Spiritual.

Neglect any one of them long enough and eventually the others begin to suffer too.

Success loses its meaning when your health collapses underneath it.

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Finally… regarding AI

AI is getting booed everywhere right now.

It doesn’t just want the job you’ve been working toward the last four years for.

It plans to change almost everything about how we live and work.

You can resent that reality…

Or you can prepare yourself to thrive inside it.

Your timeline just changed.

The old model said you reinvent yourself every few years.

Now the challenge may arrive every few months.

Maybe every few days.

But here’s the opportunity:

You are inheriting one of the greatest technological accelerators in human history.

While others fear it… learn it.

While others complain about it… harness it.

The future rarely belongs to the people resisting change.

It belongs to the people wise enough to adapt without losing themselves in the process.

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Congratulations, graduates!

Now go earn the stories.

Prepare to live an extraordinary and blessed life.

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Jim Rohn once said, “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
Jim Rohn

That quote doesn’t scream. It doesn’t chest-thump. It doesn’t need to.

Because the people who have actually built something meaningful know the truth hiding inside it.

The bridge is rarely glamorous.

It’s early mornings when nobody is watching.
It’s difficult conversations handled with respect instead of avoidance.
It’s showing up steady when motivation packed its bags three Tuesdays ago.
It’s the leader who keeps the culture standing upright while everyone else is busy measuring quarterly numbers.

In today’s world, people worship outcomes.

Big announcement.
New title.
Massive contract.
Explosive growth.
LinkedIn confetti.

But Jim Rohn understood something most people miss:

Accomplishment is almost never created in the moment of victory.
It’s created in the cadence beforehand.

The repetition.
The consistency.
The unremarkable disciplines repeated long enough to become identity.

That’s where tenacious cadence lives.

Not in hype.
Not in charisma.
Not in one heroic sprint that burns everyone out by Friday afternoon.

Real leadership is built by the people who can carry the load repeatedly without losing themselves in the process.

The seasoned leader understands:

• Energy matters.
• Tempo matters.
• Emotional steadiness matters.
• Trust compounds quietly before it compounds publicly.

And perhaps most importantly…

People are watching your rhythm more than your words.

Teams rarely become what leaders say.
They eventually become what leaders tolerate repeatedly.

That’s the uncomfortable truth about leadership succession, organizational change, and legacy-building. The future isn’t determined during the big speech at the annual meeting. It’s determined during ordinary Tuesdays when pressure rises, uncertainty creeps in, and leaders either tighten the culture… or fracture it.

Tenacious cadence is the ability to remain deliberate when chaos invites panic.

It’s maturity under pressure.

It’s confidence without noise.

It’s understanding that sustainable excellence is usually boring to outsiders and deeply meaningful to insiders.

The strongest organizations are rarely held together by brilliance alone.
They’re held together by disciplined people who keep walking the bridge long after applause fades.

And that bridge?

You build it one disciplined step at a time.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

I have been impacted recently by a large number of leadership changes. Friends, coworkers, bosses, potential bosses, old acquaintances … and never at a steady pace. It feels like change is increasing at a torrid pace.

Perhaps this snippet will resonate for you.

The hallway felt different once the legends started cleaning out their offices.

Thirty-five years of early flights, hard calls, impossible deadlines, handshakes that built empires — all reduced to banker boxes, framed photos, and a last cup of coffee growing cold on a credenza no one else would dare touch yet.

They were giants in the organization. Not because they were loud, but because the place had quietly bent around them for decades. They knew where the bodies were buried, where the opportunities lived, and which clients needed facts versus reassurance. They carried institutional memory like a second language.

And now they were leaving.

Some by choice.
Some because time finally caught them.
Some because life whispered that there had to be more than another quarter, another forecast, another Monday morning leadership call.

The organization celebrated them correctly — speeches, plaques, standing ovations. But underneath the applause sat the truth every company eventually faces:

Succession planning looks clean on PowerPoint. Human transition never does.

Because people are not positions.

You do not replace thirty years of instincts with an org chart revision and a promotion announcement. You inherit unfinished conversations, shifting loyalties, nervous high performers, unexpected vacancies, and the quiet question hanging in every conference room:

“Are we ready?”

The answer is usually both yes and no.

That’s the uncomfortable beauty of transition. Organizations are rarely rebuilt at convenient moments. Leadership arrives while people are still grieving what was, learning what is, and wondering if they themselves are next.

And yet, this is where new eras begin.

Not with certainty.
With responsibility.

A generation that spent years preparing for “someday” suddenly realizes someday arrived during budget season, client negotiations, and a dozen unanswered emails.

Exciting.
Daunting.
Necessary.

Because eventually every iconic leader hands the keys to someone who still feels slightly unprepared.

That’s not failure.

That’s the cadence of endurance.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Last night, Anne and I had the opportunity to witness history.

Persistence doesn’t always look like dominance. Sometimes, it looks like patchwork lineups, tired legs, and belief holding everything together when logic says it shouldn’t.

That was on full display last night as the Minnesota Timberwolves closed out their first-round series with a statement win. On paper, it didn’t make sense. Missing key contributors—including star power and rotation stability—the Wolves leaned into something deeper: trust in preparation and the willingness of role players to become moment-makers.

The result? A 110–98 win over a seasoned Denver Nuggets squad and a reminder that persistence isn’t about who starts—it’s about who steps up. Jaden McDaniels led the charge offensively, while emerging contributors seized their opportunity, proving that depth isn’t just a roster stat—it’s a mindset. (Reuters)

But the story doesn’t stop on the hardwood.

Minnesota fans witnessed something bigger: two home teams advancing on the same night, with the Minnesota Wild also pushing through their opening round. Different sport, same theme. Hockey, like basketball, demands resilience—line shifts instead of substitutions, but the same relentless pressure to respond when momentum slips.

What ties these moments together isn’t luck. It’s culture.

Persistence is built long before the spotlight—during early mornings, injuries, doubts, and the quiet stretches where progress feels invisible. When the Wolves lost starters, they didn’t change their identity; they leaned harder into it. When opportunities widened, players didn’t hesitate—they filled them.

That’s the lesson worth carrying beyond sports.

Whether in business, leadership, or personal goals, the breakthrough rarely comes when conditions are perfect. It comes when teams—and individuals—decide that circumstances won’t dictate outcomes.

Last night, Minnesota didn’t just celebrate wins. It showcased what happens when preparation meets adversity—and refuses to blink.

Persistence, it turns out, is contagious.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

There is a scene in the first Avatar movie where the main character is slowly advancing in his wheelchair to a training by a top military figure at a research / mining base on a different planet. He finds peace and humor in the delivery of the life saving instruction from the hard-core head honcho.

I felt a little bit like that yesterday listening to our crew leadership training instructor do his thing; sharp, plain spoken, interesting, personable, matter-of-fact and to the point. He was delivering really good content while modeling the way. His military career and the  formula of “tell’ em what you’re going to tell ‘em, tell ‘em, and tell ‘em what you told ‘em”works well. More, please!

I was invited in to observe, not to be certified. To gain some insight and exposure but not necessarily apply the principles being taught. There were the inevitable interruptions with schedule conflicts but at the end of the training, I had a chance to reflect.

•How do I come across to the groups I address?

•Is the delivery as crisp as I envisioned?

•Is the engagement at the same level I try to be at when I’m learning?

I appreciated the chance to listen, to learn and to reflect yesterday. We are growing through knowledge expansion and awareness that will allow us to grow in size and scope. Everyday, a little better, a little smarter, more investments in the right people, in the right way, with appropriate expectations.  

Learning and leading! Isn’t that what you’d want to be part of?

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good day, Team! It’s Friday!

We all get bombarded with things that demand our attention, create noise and quietly keep us from accomplishing what we want in any given time increment; hourly, daily, before the week is out, monthly or the ever-present quarterly deadline, let alone year-over-year.

This week, I helped facilitate a discussion with our leadership team on the critically important as compared to the urgent, the perceived urgent or the pesky fire drills that fill our day. It’s important to say NO to much of what’s in front of you. Things like the TV, the email inbox, social media, the needy employee, the chatty friend with not enough to do, the disgruntled peer, the projects that make you feel good but don’t move the needle…and the list goes on.

We walked through a six-hour exercise whittling down several critical business areas to the IMPERATIVE required to produce the financial outcomes we are fully capable of, but got caught up in the “drift”. It was assessment, breakouts, ideation, problem solving, presentation, sift through, prioritize, assign champions and due dates. While not riveting to everyone, as a leader knowing we had to change course, it was fun to hear the ship creaking as we started to change course, right in the meeting. CFO had a big smile on his face…Goosebumps, baby!

Monday will be smoke stacks billowing thick black evidence as we kick down the accelerator with updated  navigation. I just became the self-appointed Project Manager of our 75 day change initiative and I have a stable of champions ready to run with a few guardrails and a weekly check in.

All Aboard!

Giddy Up!

Let’s F’n GO!!

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

The art of delegation is one of the most misunderstood—and underutilized—skills in leadership. At its core, delegation is not about offloading work; it is about multiplying impact. When done well, it creates space for leaders to think strategically while simultaneously developing the next generation of leaders. When done poorly, it leads to frustration, disengagement, and stagnation.

Micromanagement is often the first trap. It typically stems from good intentions—high standards, accountability, or urgency—but it signals a lack of trust. And without trust, delegation collapses. As many leadership frameworks suggest, effective delegation requires not just assigning responsibility, but also granting the authority to act. Without that balance, leaders unintentionally create bottlenecks rather than momentum. (Wikipedia)

Equally damaging is the difference between delegating and dumping. Delegating is intentional: it matches the right task with the right person, provides clarity on outcomes, and offers support without interference. Dumping, on the other hand, is reactive—handing off tasks without context, development, or ownership. Teams feel this difference immediately. One builds capability; the other erodes morale.

Great leaders recognize that delegation is inseparable from talent strategy. Hiring the right people is only the beginning. True leadership is about stretching those individuals—giving them meaningful opportunities to grow into bigger responsibilities. Delegation becomes the bridge between today’s performance and tomorrow’s leadership bench. (Worth reading that line again). It is where potential is tested, confidence is built, and future leaders are formed.

As Theodore Roosevelt famously said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men… and self-restraint to keep from meddling.” (Ultimate Lexicon) That “self-restraint” is the essence of the art. It requires leaders to let go—not of accountability, but of control.

I struggled with this concept earlier in my career and lost good people as a result. Leadership development requires learning from your mistakes…and I am a persistent student. I still see daily examples of people mismanaging how to direct rather than do and it comes down to letting go of control, or maybe recognizing you gain more control of the environment when you hire, build and trust people so you can transfer more responsibility while you focus your attention on strategy.

Ultimately, delegation is not about getting work done. It is about building people who can get work done without you. And in that shift—from doing to developing—leaders don’t just scale results, they scale leadership itself.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

If you’ve felt like the world has been moving a little faster lately, you’re not alone.

Everywhere we turn, there’s volatility. Constant disruption. A political environment that feels more charged than ever. Economic uncertainty that raises real questions. And for many of us, the very real responsibility of being in the “sandwich generation”—supporting both parents and children at the same time.

It’s a lot.

And while none of this is entirely new, the speed and intensity of it all feels different.

So the question becomes:

Who are we going to be in the middle of it?

There’s an old Buddhist saying: pain is inevitable—but suffering is optional.

We can’t avoid the challenges, the pressure, or the uncertainty that comes with them.

But we do have a say in how we carry it.

In how we respond.

In who we choose to be in the middle of it.

There’s a quiet strength in being steady.

In not overreacting.

In not getting pulled into every wave of anxiety or noise.

Being calm doesn’t mean being passive. It doesn’t mean ignoring reality.

It means choosing clarity over chaos.

Focus over frenzy.

Perspective over panic.

And here’s the part we often underestimate:

Calm is contagious.

When you bring steadiness into a room, others feel it.

When you respond thoughtfully instead of react emotionally, people notice.

When you carry a sense of grounded confidence—even when things are uncertain—you give others permission to do the same.

That’s leadership. At every level.

This doesn’t mean we won’t feel stress. We will.

It doesn’t mean we’ll have all the answers. We won’t.

But it does mean we can remind ourselves—and each other—that:

We’ve navigated uncertainty before.

We are more resilient than we think.

And more often than not… things work out.

So today, and heading into the weekend, take a breath.

Step back from the noise.

And remember:

You don’t have to control the storm—

but you can absolutely choose to be calm within it.

And that might be exactly what someone else needs from you.

Have a blessed Easter weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

I spent this past week in Utah at a conference alongside leaders from across the region—all committed to challenging the status quo by changing how we think…about everything.

Albert Einstein famously said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” That idea wasn’t just referenced—it was put under a microscope all week.

With a collective goal of producing extraordinary outcomes, we have to think differently and act differently. The formula sounds simple. But when you begin to unpack it—when you test assumptions, challenge long-held beliefs, and truly commit to a different way of operating—it becomes clear: this is hard work.

As a way of demonstrating the power of inserting possibility into a difficult situation, we watched the classic film 12 Angry Men. One man, unwilling to accept the obvious, shifts the entire outcome—not by force, but by thinking differently, asking better questions, and refusing to settle for the easy conclusion.

(And it’s worth asking—when was the last time you watched a movie without any computer-generated effects?)

That simple exercise carries a powerful reminder:

Most situations don’t change because of new information—they change because someone is willing to see the same information differently.

So here’s the challenge as we head into next week:

Where are we defaulting to “the way it’s always been done”?

Where are we accepting conclusions too quickly?

And where might a different question—just one—open up an entirely new outcome?

Thinking differently isn’t about being creative for the sake of it. It’s about being intentional enough to create results that wouldn’t otherwise happen.

Let’s go create something extraordinary.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric