On Leading with Greatness

The great Mississippi Delta bluesman Robert Johnson (1911-1938) was a revolutionary guitarist with a wicked way with words. While he still has a living stepsister who published a captivating memoir last year , much is not known about his life and death. Johnson’s prodigious musical powers in combination with his short life and enigmatic biography have naturally generated much lore, one tale being...

Have you ever worked with a liar? I mean someone who just could not resist the urge to exaggerate, fabricate, fib, and prevaricate throughout the day. I am not talking about someone who has a diagnosable condition that compels them to lie. Nor am I concerned with someone whose grasp of reality is so tenuous that they cannot distinguish it from fiction. I mean someone who chooses to lie so much tha...

Welcome to my first Ted talk. Two types of politics pervade most workplaces. One is the politics of possibility , the idea that, through sheer persuasiveness and appeals to values, people can be recruited and motivated to work together for good. That their passions and their intellect can be encouraged to join forces in common cause for the betterment of all. The other is sadly much more pervasive...

Leaders at every level need to understand that an individual’s perception is reality. This statement is not the same as “everything I believe to be true is true,” which is just lazy, fanciful thinking. Nor is it a license to insist that everyone share your perceptions, which is bullying. Indeed, the failure to grasp this last point or, more cynically, an effort to exploit this last point has led t...

True competence is an overall achievement, not a matter of a few data points clustered around specific categories. It is one of the greatest fallacies in leadership that value is achieved simply by reaching a goal. How you get there, why you want to get there, and what else you do along the way matter. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe

Vulnerability is strength. That sentence sounds outright Orwellian although, unlike the dystopian slogans George Orwell invented for his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (“War is peace.” “Freedom is slavery.” “Ignorance is strength.”), it is profoundly true and uplifting. So let’s extol the virtues of intentional frailty, of showing the soft underbelly, of standing down when others stand rigid, of letti...

If, though, you are like most of humanity, you have had a bevy of bad bosses in your past and present. If you are a boss, chances are that you are a less-than-stellar boss to some degree. Sorry. It’s not me, it’s statistics , but feel free to defy the stats. Someone has to be above average, and according to the report I linked, women are more likely to be so than men (but not always, so don’t rest...

Last week I sought to reframe our perception of transparency and its opposite, opacity, not as something we merely should do but as a matter of foundational principle. True transparency in a leader is not an action or state but is the result of a values choice, a personal standard to live by. Opacity, though, seems easier and is a much more common, almost universal, move among leaders. This popula...

Let’s reframe how we think about transparency , and its opposite, opacity . We usually think of workplace transparency as a form of enhanced communications or a way of keeping people in the loop. Although those two benefits of transparency are evident, the true practice of transparency has to do with an organization’s ethos. As much as transparency is about doing this or not doing that , at its co...

Are you or have you ever been a boss or been someone who has a boss? Chances are, the answer is yes. If so, then this series of essays is for you. Rule 5 Always Train Your Replacement Since You Will Be Replaced This one is particularly addressed to the bossers, but you bossees should find much to divert and delight you. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subsc...

Are you or have you ever been a boss or been someone who has a boss? Chances are, the answer is yes. If so, then this series of essays is for you. Rule 4 Knowing When to Leave Is More Valuable than Never Quitting Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe

Over five consecutive weeks we will continue to take a look at each of these rules in turn and apply them to your experience with daily bossing, be you a  bosser  or a  bossee . Rule 3 Always Carry Your Own Ruck Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe

Rule 2 Trust Lasts Longer than Ammo Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe

Rule 1 If You're Not Always Fighting for Your People, You're Wrong Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe

Why do you get out of bed in the morning? Just to roll stones? Bob Dylan’s 1997 song “ Not Dark Yet ” offers a keen observation undergirded by profound wisdom. Actually, it offers many keen observations about life and aging while the entire song is undergirded by profound wisdom, but I want to look at just one couplet and the second line of the couplet in particular. I was born here and I’ll die h...

One of my longtime mantras has been “hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and expect something in between.” That philosophy has stood me in good stead as the extremes — absolute good or absolute bad — occur only rarely and are usually nowhere as good or bad as we imagine. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe

James Joyce published the short story “ Counterparts ” in his 1914 collection, Dubliners . Perhaps you have read it. If not, I suggest you check it out although you will not need to do so to follow my argument here. The opening of “Counterparts” is set in the small legal office of Crosbie & Alleyne located in Dublin, naturally enough. Mr. Alleyne is the managing partner, and Farrington, the main c...

Anyone who has taught on just about any level has heard a student or twelve whine some version of “but I worked oh-so very hard on it” after turning in a poor assignment. The student’s assumption is that putting in a great effort is tantamount to producing good work. They imagine that, upon hearing their woeful tale of travail, you will immediately raise their grade in the belief that indiscrimina...

An apocryphal story about the early days of NASA’s Apollo program has long made the rounds. Perhaps you have heard it. Many versions feature President John F. Kennedy touring a NASA facility, but that one seems too contrived. I will tell my preferred version with a good deal of embroidery. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe