Category: Leadership Skills

Yesterday was National Read A Book Day, which is observed annually on September 6th.  Did you miss the opportunity to grab a book and spend the day reading?

If so, take advantage of a summary from one of my favorite authors, John Maxwell, and his 2019 book entitled Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace.

Eric J. McNulty, Director of Research at the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, found, “Management systems and processes tend to be linear. They assume that similar inputs will result in similar outputs. In many situations, this holds true. Leadership, however, requires a more nuanced view of the world because it involves people: what motivates them, what their interests are, and how engaged they become. Mechanical systems may be linear but as soon as the human element becomes involved the system becomes both complex and adaptive.”

To go forward, we need to move faster. And as leaders, we need to stay ahead, we need to see more than others, and we need to see before others.

Click here to learn the 11 essential changes every leader must embrace

This month was a month of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.  In fact, it was the first time we had two hurricanes hitting in the same week!  Our home in Houston was within the cone of Hurricane Laura until it turned east and hit the Lake Charles, Louisiana area as a Category 5 storm!  We were spared this time but understand the danger and devastation hurricanes can bring.

Along those lines, August 31st marks the fifteenth anniversary of Katrina Task Force, led by Lieutenant General Russel L. Honore’.  His book—Leadership in the New Normal—is one I’m pleased to summarize today.

General Honoré, one of the most-recognized military leaders of our time, shares his knowledge of how to be an effective leader in the 21st century.  He was the 3-star general who emerged as a national hero in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. He spearheaded the Joint Task Force responsible for the massive search-and-rescue mission and the restoration of order in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the wake of the terrible storm.

Honoré passes on valuable lessons he learned in the Army about some of the essentials of effective leadership: doing the routine things well, being willing to take on the seemingly impossible, and never being paralyzed into inaction by criticism or fear of it.

Click here for more from Leadership in the New Normal